Phantom investigators: First meetings
by Justobuy
Summary: Daemona Prune, a tomboy, 12 years old kid dreams to work as a ghost-hunter and resolving mysteries like these TV shows she watches all the time to compense the boredom of her new life with her parents in San Francisco. Trying to find her place, she will discover that not only supernatural is real, but it's not always like these shows when the ghost have to end up being hunted...
1. In San francisco, I live in solo

A rainy 12:00 am night, it was bedtime for all the children and day-workers of the city of San Francisco. But not for one guy who walked on the pavement, wearing a black raincoat, blue pants and black rain boots. His right hand held an umbrella.

Just walking, he didn't say a word, his eyes were not visible, but his mouth seemed like he was sad. His silence continued until he stomped into a graveyard.

 _"Here am I..."_ the hooded person said.

He continued walking, left hand holding his chest, while breathing heavily. Then he stopped in front of two tombstones and just stood here hand on his chest, saying nothing. Not even crying, not even falling on his limbs, he just stood here, waiting for something to happen.

Suddenly, it was ringing in the left pocket of his pants. The individual answered the big purple cell phone, picking it out of his pocket.

 _"…You saw me coming don't you?"_ answered directly the unknown guy. _"Yes, I know, I haven't changed"_

The interlocutor laughed while scratching the black soul patch he had under his mouth.

 _"Well…here it is, you got what you wanted, they have moved in."_

Nobody seemed to talk or respond on the other side of the line, but there was a communication. It was told by the constant silences between the adult's words.

 _"I don't know how she's been, I haven't often saw her since she was a baby. No, I don't think I will see her more now. …Yeah, I know I made a promise, but…"_

The mysterious person suddenly stopped talking for a few seconds before starting his speeches again.

 _"…OK…I get it…there's crazy paranormal events going all over San Francisco time to time. …Yes, I'll keep an eye on her, I promise, but for the moment, let's not rush anything, shall we?"_

Then, while the anonymous drove away his phone out of his ear for a few centimeters, another voice was heard through the line, a feminine, screechy voice.

 _"Take well care of her..."_ the voice said.

 _"You know I will…say hi to your husband for me"_ the guy answered with a smile.

He hanged up his purple phone and put it back into left his pocket. In the right pocket, he took out a picture: A tall, grown man with a soul patch and brown eyes holding a baby.

The man on the picture was wearing a dark red dense jacket, with a green pocket on the right arm, his legs weren't seen. The baby, wrapped in a white blanket and wearing a green cap was happily playing with his dark blue hair with some touch of lavender. Judging by the orange-brown wall with some black straps behind the two persons, this photo was not taken inside a normal house.

 _"She is really becoming a teenager now? I swear she was born yesterday."_ the unknown hooded guy lifted his head. _"Wow, time flies like an air elemental."_

 **-...-**

A messy red-haired girl in her pink pajamas and wearing a green sleep mask with a black elastic woke up from her purple bed. She's in a big room for a chamber: two closets, a mirror aside an old clock, a couch not far away.

 _"Well, first night in this attic, nothing attacked me"_ the girl spoke to herself before yawning, taking out her green sleep mask and scratching her red hair while putting his eyes cover on the bed.

When she scratched herself, her eyes widely opened, something sticky was in her hair, she started to look at the mirror, only to see she had a big pile of pink gum glued to her. Screaming by surprise, she hurried herself and put her two hands on the gum, after a few seconds of struggle, she took the wad of gum with some or her red hair and yelled of pain while throwing the gum in a trash can.

 _"Nothing attacked me, but this gum, urgh!"_ the girl grimaced.

The young child took a look at the room she's in. She seemed surprised, her who passed the night here.

 _"This room is weird now that I look at it, I haven't got time to look at it properly."_

The unnamed child noticed one of the closets, door closed, and started to smile. Using her imagination, she took the blanket on her bed and wrapped it around her, holding her with her two hands close to her neck; she was pretending to have a disguise.

The red-haired child walked slowly on tiptoes. With a sly smile, she was looking at the closet she was about to open.

 _"Beware, monsters in closet, don't mess with Daemona Prune, the queen of paranormal-hunting. If you hurt me, I have laser rays that will send you back where you belong"_ the imaginative kid interpreted, as she put her hand on the handle. _"Aaaaaaaaaaaand….PEEEEEEEW!"_ she yelled as she opened the door, only to find out some boxes.

There's a long silence, Daemona Prune sighed and shrugged.

 _"I guess I tried to have fun here…but wait, did I ever looked in these boxes?"_

Just as she was about to open one of the boxes, she got interrupted by a male voice, her father.

 _"Daemona, sweetie, what are you doing? Come take your breakfast!"_

 _"Okay dad, I'm coming"_ she answered, with a droopy face.

It took a few minutes to Daemona to dress and to come downsides with a backpack to take her breakfast in the dining room. She was wearing blue overalls over a red shirt and some generic white socks and shoes. While the young kid ate, her parents looked at her overalls.

 _"Dear, you got any better dresses than that?"_ the mother asked, raising her eyebrows.

 _"Nope, I took the least-worst of them"_ Daemona responded, as she looked as some holes and rips down her overalls.

 _"Hm…it's true that we haven't got the time to shop, because of this entire removal plan in grandmother's house. Daemona, after your school day, we will take an opportunity to visit our new town by buying you new clothes."_ the father decided.

At first, Daemona seemed disinterested to the proposition, but a few seconds later, and because she noticed her parents waited for an answer, she nodded with a smile.

 _"I guess I can find some cool new clothes here"_ Daemona indicated.

"So, dear, are you excited for your first day at middle school?" Mrs. Prune asked. "You're growing up so fast, I can't believe you're already in that phase, you'll see, you will probably make a lot of friends."

The daugther took a bite of her breakfast, with an elusive look, she chomped for some times, really hesitating to answer, then swallowed with a polite smile.

 _"I guess I can find some cool friends here, I hope it will be better than my past school."_ she just replied.

 _"There are so many children in there, you will never be in the same group, it will be a great opportunity for you."_ Daemona's dad informed.

 _"I guess I will find cool opportunities…"_ the single daughter of the family replied once again.

After finishing her breakfast, Daemona Prune went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, went back to the dining room to took her backpack and walked out the room. Saying goodbye to her parents with a nice smile, she got out of the house and sighed.

 _"If I will ever find cool stuff for real…"_ she complained while walking to her new school.


	2. My new friends, they're not fiends

Lugosi Junior High School was the name of Daemona's new school. She was going to start her first middle school year here. All was organized some time before moving: her locker's location, her planned lessons, which group of students she was going to go. The majority of her school stuff was already in her locker, all was organized during the move.

Naturally, because she was a newcomer, all curious looks of children who begun their teenage years laid on her as she entered the front yard, there was no silence, but they looked while continuing their conversation.

" _Just play it normal like you always did"_ Daemona thought to herself.

" _Hey, watch out for mouses!"_ a random student shouted, alluding to her overalls holes.

" _Hey, watch out for flies, it smells bad here."_ Daemona just responded with some of her usual sarcasm.

As she walked through one of the school's corridors to get to her locker, the new schoolgirl looked the place, just an ordinary-looking school like everything else.

Remaining silent, she opened her locker and looked which lessons she was going to have for her first day.

" _Math, well that starts a day."_

Ten minutes later, in her math classroom, she was standing up in front of all her classmates with her material, waiting for her teacher to speak.

" _Good morning, my dear students"_ the teacher started while adjusting his glasses. _"I'm Mr. Samson. I know, all of you sitting here already know my name, it's because we have a new student today. She just moved in San Francisco, but don't worry, she'll get the same lessons and treatment as you'll get. Please, young girl, introduce yourself to your comrades."_

Daemona took a step and just waved.

" _Hey, I'm Daemona Prune"_

Some students held a laugh.

" _Watch out, it's urgent, I ate too much prune"_ Some student girl with brown loose hair and earrings whispered to her classmate sitting next to her.

" _Well, Daemona, choose your seat"_ Mr. Samson indicated while sitting on his chair.

There were three desks allowed for Daemona to sit, she spotted the one in the very back of the classroom. As she went there and sat on the chair, the least expected arrived, she heard a little noise, as someone was in pain.

" _Ooow!"_

" _AAAAAUUUGH!"_ Daemona screamed and jumped out of her chair, she was so jump scared that she hit the chair with her leg by standing up and it fell on the ground, with a big noise.

While all the students laughed, Mr. Samson went to see what the problem was.

" _What's going on, Daemona?"_

" _Uuuh, nothing…I just…um…the chair is broken."_ Daemona hesitated.

The math professor saw the chair, a strange chair; it was blue on the backrest and red on the seat.

" _He's not broken, he's OK…and I see someone expressed his art on it."_ said Mr. Samson while replacing his chair. _"But anyways, that place is taken, the student on it is absent…and he didn't warn me."_

Without responding, Daemona went sitting on the front-right, close to the wall. She ignored student's gazes, who were holding their laugh.

" _This is gonna be a long day"_ Daemona thought to herself.

* * *

After the math class was done, Daemona was the last to exit the classroom with her material, her teacher went before her. As she went out, she was going to let the door open.

" _Might as well give a service"_ she stopped and turned back.

The student was about to close the door, eyes on the handle. She didn't saw the child who was coming out of the classroom and they bumped on each other. The two persons fell onto the ground and on their butt.

" _Ow, what was that for?"_ The red girl shouted.

The other child, really sorry for his action, picked up his glasses before helping Daemona to reunite her material fallen.

" _I'm really sorry, I thought everybody else was gone."_ The child said, rubbing his left arm.

Daemona looked at the kid, he was a children of her age: a young boy with glasses, frizzy hair, blue long sleeve sweater with one big red stripe on it and on his arms, blue eyes, casual jeans and black shoes. His allure seemed a bit chubby.

" _Well…I've been here two days late since the class's start, but…guess I can present myself, I'm Daemona Prune."_ She shook hands with her presentation, who just let his acquaintance shook his arm and hand and not following her movements. _"You were in the class? I didn't saw you."_

" _Well, my name is…Casey…Casey Sam…._ _son_ _"_ he really toned down that last syllable.

" _Samson? Like Mr Samson the half-bald math teacher with glasses?"_

Casey was panicked, he didn't directly say anything but Daemona deducted the whole thing by herself, it almost scared him. He was about to entrust a girl he only knew since two minutes. Just keeping his mouth shut, Daemona talked back.

" _You don't have to be ashamed, you're not the first kid of the universe with this kind of situation, but I agree, this must be hard to endure."_ Daemona sympathized.

Casey just shrugged; it was no use playing comedy, since the new student was too inquisitive. Nevertheless, he didn't speak loudly to remain discreet.

" _I have my friends, but it's hard to absorb all the mocking I can get from the rest of the school."_

" _But wait, you were just exiting the classroom, you're in front of the door. I didn't saw you during the lesson. Weird, were you the absent guy?"_ Monie asked by making quotation marks with her fingers. _"And your clothes have the same color scheme as the chair I sat on…"_

She suddenly smiled wide open, Casey didn't even had time to respond that Daemona awkwardly questioned him.

" _Are you some kind of shapeshifter like these monsters I see on TV?"_ She asked. _"….Oh my demon, you were the yelling chair I sat on?"_

Casey paused; he was uncomfortable to respond to such insight.

" _That's awesome, how can you do that?"_ Daemona got excited.

" _That's awesome, how can you do that?"_ another girl who spotted the conversation said, at the same time as Daemona.

" _Aaah!"_ Casey yelled while the ginger girl turned around. _"Kira, you heard what I said?"_

" _I have a fine ear, so you pretend to have powers?"_ Kira mockingly asked.

" _Uuuuh, no, you deform everything, that girl jumps to conclusion."_ he blamed, referencing Daemona.

" _I don't deform everything, it's really not necessary to be close."_ The name Kira poked her head.

Luckily, no one besides the three children talking between them heard that conversation. Ignoring Casey's panic blame, Daemona Prune shook hands with her new acquaintance: a brown-skinned girl, brown hair combed with cabbages on the sides, pink shoes, blue jeans and pink sweater with striped sleeves.

" _I'm Daemona Prune."_

" _I'm Kira Williams, and you look adorable."_

" _So it seems this day as a new student goes better than expected, I already have two friends."_ the newcomer affirmed.

Kira and Casey looked at each other, the chubby boy smiled.

" _Well, good for you if you choose your friends so easily, I like persons who are straight-to-the-point."_ Kira Williams said, with a smile.

" _It's not just that, you two said something strange, Casey went out of the class and I didn't saw him and Kira being all_ _ **"It's not necessary to be close"**_ _like she was a telepathic."_ Daemona explained.

Kira and Casey gulped at the same time, they then looked at each other with a surprised look.

" _Now now, you just make things up, I didn't even talk!"_ Casey retorted.

Daemona coughed and realized something, maybe she was starting to becoming too much a creep, she who is starting to investigate two persons whom she exchanged a few words. She took the time to think and concluded that the best she could do is acting normally.

" _OK OK, I'm sorry, I see I'm starting to scare you. It's just that…well…I've grew up watching TV shows of investigation or ghost-hunting, it was really my seed, I have a passion for analyzing details of strange phenomena."_

To her, that was how she could act the most normal.

 _"It's OK."_ Kira reassured. _"It's nice to have a passion; I know what I'm talking about. And how much you like it?"_

" _It's really my guilty-pleasure! When I've watched TV shows, I tried to found who the responsible of the paranormal phenomena was EVEN before the Medias declared it. I'm surprised I'm not even the creator of these shows, because 80% of the time, I've somehow had the right answer…well…close!"_ Daemona ranted, getting a little too intense.

Daemona's new friends didn't know what to say, it was just a girl they knew for not even ten minutes and it was already time for real things.

" _It's really the only passion that makes it up for my current boredom in San Francisco_ …" Daemona excused herself.

" _Oh, so you're new in the town."_ the boy added.

Kira was looking at the time on a clock suspended close to a ceiling, she turned back to Daemona.

" _Daemona, I like you and you are one curious girl, but we have to get to our next class. If you want, we can reunite at noon and take the time to introduce ourselves. Now it will be the time to get real and really know each other."_ Kira explained.

" _Let's meet outside this noon, nobody risks to bother us."_ Daemona proposed.

" _Well, OK, have fun."_ Casey said.

" _Kira said_ _ **"ourselves"**_ _, Casey the chair, so it probably means you're coming too."_

" _Yeah, he can come too."_

The young boy nervously gulped.

" _I'm not a chair!"_

" _Hm…that gives me an idea, how about we play a game."_ Kira proposed. _"We are superheroes, and we're hiding big things, let's pretend we have hidden powers, let's make that game, I think it will enter in Daemona's interests."_ Kira Williams said with a bit of sarcasm.

" _YES!"_ she just replied.

" _Well, see you at noon"_ Kira said while going away, raising her hand.

Daemona waved back to her and went to her locker preparing for her next lesson.

* * *

At noon, it was a long hour of lunch time, Daemona, Kira and Casey were outside the school and kinda isolated from the front yard. They stood on the left side of the school, close to a wall and pretended to play the game Kira said.

" _So, let me introduce myself, I'm Daemona Prune, I try to find excitement in this town and I have a special interest for disguises and Paranormal Investigation, my powers are simple: I am a master of disguise, when I try out superhero suits, I'm able to adapt to their powers. Look! I'm now super strong; I could break this wall right here."_

Daemona pretended to punch the wall and mimicked a sound of something breaking. Kira laughed, but not Casey, who was still uncomfortable about all this.

" _So, you two have sneaky secrets to reveal?"_ Daemona addressed.

" _No, I'm just here because you invited me, I'm still listening."_ Casey denied.

Kira looked the chubby boy with glasses and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

" _All I hear is: I mustn't think of my powers, I mustn't think of my powers"_ Kira said with sarcasm, she opened her eyes.

" _OK then, let's say I have powers, but you seem to have some too, talk about it first."_ Casey answered, crossing his arms, it was unclear if he was really serious or just playing the game.

" _Yeah Kira, what was that? Are you a telepathic?"_ Daemona asked, she was still playing the game.

" _Well…I can read people's mind, I can tell when people are lying, sense some bad things a few meters away from me and I can see through closed boxes. It's really not a big deal, but I guess that's part of me."_ Kira explained.

" _And what about you Casey? You are a big secret by yourself."_ The red girl curiously asked.

Casey remained silent, he was really nervous.

"… _I really don't want to talk about it, I think I will just disturb you here"_ Casey confessed, he prepared to get away.

Kira and Daemona looked at each other.

" _Casey, we're here to talk openly about what make us special and what our powers are, we're not here to judge you, you can confess to us."_ Kira said, hand on his shoulder. _"Besides…we're just playing a game."_ She rolled her eyes at that last sentence.

" _Knowing the kind of life I've had all my primary school, I'm sorry if I don't open myself yet, in real life or in a game, it's just that…"_

He didn't have time to finish his sentence; he heard some big scream coming from the front yard.

" _AAAUUUUGH!"_

" _What was that?"_ Daemona seeked.

The three children ran in direction of the front yard, a couple of students stood up in circle around someone who groaned in pain. Tossing some students apart, Kira questioned.

" _What happened?"_

" _It's Jericho; he was going to the skate park and he fell off of his skateboard in the way."_ answered one of the students.

" _It hurts, someone takes me to the infirmary"_ Jericho begged, holding his right shoulder.

" _How did he fell off? I heard he was nearly a professional!"_ another student said.

" _OK OK no panic."_ Kira said by kneeling close to Jericho, examining his shoulder. _"It's not a major injury, but you still have to be healed. Just breathe, Jericho."_

" _Hop on our back, we'll get you here!"_ Casey ordered, suddenly completely stopped worrying about his school reputation and his presence around a lot of students.

Kira lifted Jericho and, with the help of Casey, carried the injured ginger boy with yellow and orange sweater with colored "army-like" pants on their shoulder.

" _Go ahead, I'll rejoin you"_ Daemona indicated.

The rest of the students, who had nothing left to do here, just started splitting up, going back to each other's activities, while Daemona looked at the skateboard. One wheel was unscrewed, and not far away, there was a plastic bottle filled with viscous substance.

" _What is that?"_ Daemona questioned herself while picking up the bottle and looked at it. _"…Hair gel?"_ she looked around and talked to some students. _"Hey, someone dropped this!"_ Nobody responded or came looking for it. _"Hmmm…I think I found my first investigation…"_


	3. Circumstances, what are the chances?

The break of the afternoon started, Casey was to his locker, Kira and Daemona went to him.

" _So, did that Jericho guy got better?"_ the red girl opened with a subject.

" _He's going to be at home all the weekend, poor him, he's really a guy of action."_ Kira sympathized.

" _At least he was happy for us helping him."_ Casey retorted.

The two girls looked at Casey, they had a very proud look.

" _Yeah, speaking of which, that was really kind what you did back there."_ Kira complimented. _"You didn't stand around and did nothing like all these idiots who are recording someone's pain."_

" _Well, I helped."_ Casey said in an excusing himself way. _"So, are we taking a walk all toget-"_

Casey paused himself, Mr. Samson was not far away with his class material and he saw him. Casey's heart almost stopped beating. He was becoming red, Mr Samson said nothing, but he had a disappointed look. Under pressure, and didn't know what to do, Casey started to get back to the game he played with his two new friends: he joined his hands together in the air and bent his knees.

" _Uuuuh…I'm a plant pot!"_

Luckily, no one else in the alley was there, Mr. Samson just passed by and waved at the two girls, not looking at Casey, who was sweating like his life was in danger. Once he was far away, Casey started breathing heavily, back in normal position.

" _What was that?"_ Daemona just said.

" _I'm so done! I'm going to have the punish of my life!"_ he panicked, holding his heart and heavily breathing.

" _Easy, easy, just breathe normally; it's going to be fine."_ Kira said, hand on his shoulder, knowing about the deal with Casey and Mr. Samson.

" _What my name is? Jericho? THIS IS NOT THE KIND OF SITUATION WHERE I CAN STAY CALM."_

"… _You're not hurt…"_

Daemona was silent during Kira and Casey's exchange. Seeing this chubby boy all turned upside-down mentally was suddenly painful to her.

" _It's not fine! He thought I was absent. I don't know if I'm going to survive a whole year."_ Casey went out these words with difficulty.

A student passed by and saw the group, he started laughing at Casey.

" _Hahaha, what's wrong brainy, you saw your reflect? Oh right, it was your father."_ He laughed as he just passed by.

Daemona looked at the student with a scornful look, eyebrows frowning.

" _He knows too much, he has to lose his memory."_ Daemona said, as she started walking.

" _No, sit, Daemona."_ Kira ordered to her friend, who just stopped. She then turned at Casey, whose breath was taking a normal rhythm again. _"OK, look, Casey. You don't have to make this a big deal. They will get tired from doing idiot remarks eventually. It will go faster if you just assume your situation and stop hiding yourself."_

Casey started getting calmer, hand going out of his chest, took deep breaths and started talking…at the same time as Daemona.

" _Thanks Kira."_

The new 7th grader said exactly the same sentence at the same time…Kira and Casey started looking at her, curious.

"Daemona?" the two just said.

" _Oh, I'm sorry, that was quite a…stumble."_ she nervously chuckled and looked away. _"Uuuh…look, see you next week, our last class is about to begin."_

Kira nodded, but not without an interrogative look. As Daemona went away, Kira just talked to Casey.

" _You only were pretending to be absent one time, don't worry, if you don't start again, I'm sure he will be noble, and at least he didn't lecture you in front of everyone…."_

" _Yeah…"_

* * *

The school day was done, after the bell rang, Daemona just went straight away out of the school with her backpack. In front of the courtyard, her parents were waiting for her in Mrs. Prune's car.

" _So, how your first day went?"_ her mom on the conductor side inquired as Daemona went into the back seat.

" _It was nice; I've managed to make myself new friends quickly."_ she politely smiled.

" _We're really happy for you now, dear. You will see, middle school is fun when you find your place."_ her dad encouraged.

The daughter politely nodded as a response.

" _Time to go buy you new clothes."_ Mrs. Prune said, starting the car.

* * *

In a clothes shop, Mr and Mrs. Prune were in front of a dressing room, waiting for Daemona to go out with her new garment. When she finally opened the door, the dad let a sound out.

" _Aaaw, you look just like your mother."_ he complimented.

Daemona Prune's new clothes were a red shirt with a green cotton jacket and black sleeves on it. Down on her legs: blue pants and brown shoes, in conclusion, casual clothes going well with her not arranged hair.

" _I admit I feel comfortable in these new clothes."_ The kid shared, then just shortened things. _"Well, can we go now? I'm gonna miss my TV show."_

" _Hahaha, young and pressed. You have other clothes to try; we have to give a lot of your old ones dear."_ Mrs Prune said.

Daemona growled quietly, went back to the dressing room, changed quickly for her old overalls and followed his parents who looked for other clothes.

" _Do we feel really obligated trying a new suit ONE BY ONE?"_ she rambled.

" _Calm down or no TV for the evening, it's possible that it's not the only place we will go, we have to search well."_ Mr. Prune specified.

Daemona sighed and looked for something she was keeping in her pocket: the plastic bottle of hair gel. As she looked at it from several angles, she noticed something stuck to it, which she didn't see before.

"… _A hair." she quietly notified. "And it seems…dark blue…dark purple? Black? I don't know, lighting is too strong here."_

The young investigator put the two evidences back in her pocket and looked everywhere, looking for a person with that similar color scheme, almost nobody had a hair of that color, except her dad.

But the last person she looked to…it was a person covered with the black hood of his black coat. He was turned away but he turned back, his lower face visible. Daemona saw he has a soul patch, it seemed a dark color, but it was hard to tell from far away.

The kid had the idea to leaning closer to the unknown guy, and once she was close, she patted him.

" _Hey, excuse me sir, does this belong to you?"_ Daemona asked, showing the plastic bottle of hair gel.

" _Uuuuh, no, sorry."_ he answered.

" _Oh, well, first potential suspect out of my list."_

The unknown guy chuckled.

" _What are you doing?"_

" _I just found this at my school"_ she showed back the hair gel and put it back. _"I think it was used to hurt someone who fell out of his skateboard. And I just saw a piece of dark color hair…just looked for someone with that similar color, we might never know."_

" _You have a clever sense of deduction, kid, but unfortunately I've passed the age of throwing stuff at people and hanging out in middle schools."_ he rubbed paternally her red hair.

" _Hm…yeah, you're right, I didn't take the time to look at my classmates…well, sorry for the disturbance."_

As she was about to go, she was called by her parents, who ran to her and the unknown guy.

" _Daemona, what are you doing?"_ Mr Prune harshly lectured. _"You don't move out of your parents like that in a big store!"_

The hooded man looked at Daemona's parents, his mouth changed…meanwhile; the daughter looked at her mom and dad. She found a way to excuse herself.

" _I know I know, I was just curious about that adult's little beard."_ she noticed that her parents were not looking at her. She took the same gaze direction and saw the adult going away.

" _He seemed in a hurry…"_ the mom remarked.

" _He didn't want to get corrected."_ the dad turned back to her daughter. _"Darling, another conduct like that and you won't watch your shows anymore; it rises up at your head."_

" _Calm down honey, she was just curious, she's still a kid."_

Knowing by her father's tone she was going to have problems if she resumed this way, Daemona sighed and nodded, eyes closed.

The rest of the day went normally, all new clothes were paid at the cashier of the shop and the family took the car, going back home.

* * *

The evening started, in the same shop, the cashier who received the money of Daemona's parents for the clothes started doing the inventory of the shop.

Judging by his blond and grey hair it was a man almost middle-aged. He however didn't have wrinkles on his face and wore a black coat and a tie as if he was working in a large company. A contrast for all the not-expensive average clothes that were in this shop.

" _Well, another busy day for this little company, my boss must be happy."_ he said to herself, he then noted something on a pad, looking at red shirts. _"Red shirts are done, let see the rest."_

As he was about to pursue his inventory, a wind sound resounded.

" _What? Who's there?"_ the cashier turned around, he then saw all the red shirts disappearing. _"Wait…weren't they…"_

Suddenly, voices and whispers were heard, they were coming from the fitting room not far away.

 _Shht_

 _Go away_

 _Stop_

 _Don't talk_

Trembling, he was about to open the door. The door was partially opened that a spear pointed at him and a demonic but serious voice.

" _STAY OUT OF OUR TERRITORY!"_

The man screamed by surprise and rushed to his suitcase in the employees' room. He hurried himself to search in.

" _Where is it, where is it, I know I still have it with me anywhere for this type of case."_

It took a long time, but he found a sheet and happily looked at it.

 _ **Got a problem and you think it's a monster?**_

 _ **You don't know what to do?**_

 _ **Call…**_

 _ **And to creatures you say goodbye.**_

The words alongside _"call"_ were half erased by the years the sheet seemed to pass in that suitcase, but luckily, the phone number was still there, underneath the _"and to creatures you say goodbye"_.

"… _Let's hope for the best, I'm desperate right now."_

The middle-aged men then went looking for a phone in the establishment.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Daemona's room, she was there, still wearing her old overalls for one last day. She looked at the bottle of hair gel and the dark piece of hair along it, on her nightstand.

" _I'll found out who threw you on that student, in the meantime, I've got my eyes on you!"_ she talked alone to the evidences, with a serious look, doing the sign. After a few seconds of silence, she looked at another place, her closet, and smiled. _"Well, might check out on grandma's stuff."_

Running straight to the closet she wanted to check this morning, the mystery enthusiast took one of the boxes and opened it.

" _An ancient phone with casters. Where can I plug it?"_

She put in on a desk with a large oval screen at the back of the room, plugged it in an outlet at the back and went back to the box, looking for objects.

" _VacuumOrmal"_ Daemona read on the object she had in her hands: a green illuminated small size vacuum with sticky wheels and a handle. She placed it next to her and went for the rest of the box. _"Books and sheets…some of them are not heavy."_

She picked one of the sheets and started to read.

 _ **How to use the VacuumOrmal**_

 _ **Light and handy, turn it on and adjust to average power to absorb even the smallest ghost or wad of slime in floor cracks. Watch out for the full power. Can also be used on walls and ceilings.**_

The red girl turned on the VacuumOrmal and used it, walking on the floor and holding the vacuum by the handle, she looked for any possible traces on the ground and saw the pink gum she had in her hair the other day…that was not in the trash can anymore.

" _Weird…"_

Before she could have any fun using it, the phone she plugged at the back started ringing. Stopping for a few seconds and looking at it with a surprised look, the ginger girl walked to the phone and started responding.

" _Uuuum…Hello?"_ she just responded.

On the other side of the line, it was the middle-aged man from the clothes shop.

" _Ah finally, I don't know who this is but I need help!"_

 _"What's the problem?"_ the girl voice said from the other line.

" _I think there are ghosts….and one threatened me!"_

Back to Daemona's room, she had a shocked look, her mouth and her eyes were wide open from surprise. She was not expecting this….in one single day, crazy things happened to her.

Slowly descending the handset from her ear, quiet, she hesitated about what to do.

" _Hello?"_ the voice said.


	4. Got any hacks? I'll scratch your back

" _Hello?"_

Daemona, out of her bubble, put the handset back on her ear, stuttering by the surprise.

" _Ye-Yeah. I would love to help, but my ghost TV show i-is start-"_ she interrupted herself, face palming and talking to herself loudly under the stress. _"Oh but what's wrong with me? I mean, yeah, I'll be happy to help you!"_

" _Who's talking?"_ the voice said, who seemed to recognize it.

More than ever under the pressure, Daemona pitched her voice higher instead of lower.

" _I am a…..a….Fant-fantôme- PHANTOM Investigator! And don't worry, if you got any hacks, I'll… scratch your back!"_ she thought the following sentence to herself afterwards. _"First good slogan Daemona."_

After she asked for the localization and hung up. She talked to herself, hands on her hair, what to do. It seemed dangerous to go there alone, but she didn't knew where her new friends lived, she didn't foreseen all these crazy happenings in one single day. Then again…it just seemed like an investigation, not hunting.

"… _This is my chance to see if paranormal is real…but it seems dangerous…but I want to go…but I can't go like that, he will recognize me."_ she balanced with her normal voice.

Daemona prepared herself with what she already knew how to manage. She took the VacuumOrmal, a flashlight, checked out in the closet to see if her grandmother were keeping any clothes, she found a green heavy outfit with buttons and a huge collar suspended on the wall in the "clothes" box, she dressed with it.

" _A mask, a mask…"_ the poor stressful girl searched, she saw her green sleeping mask on her bed. _"….Ooooh!"_

Some crafts later, Daemona Prune was like a new person: no messy hair and casual overalls with holes, but a nice-looking green suit, long red hair well aligned and combed, and a green mask. In reality, it was just her sleeping mask on which she cut holes and dissimulated the black stripe behind her red hair.

 _"Perfect, I'm ready to roll!"_

It was 20:30 o'clock in all San Francisco, a disguised investigator moved furtively through the streets, going to her appointment point. She tried not to be seen too much, but it was hard with her small-sized vacuum on her hand. This performance stopped until the disguised girl arrived to her destination...the clothes shop she went hours ago.

She went around the building; it was part of the meeting: the owner of this shop wanted to meet by the back door to not arouse suspicions.

Once she reached for the back door, the cashier was already there, looking at her coming with her big material.

 _"Uh, you seem different for what I thought."_ the guy said.

 _"I'm here to help you, what's the problem in particular?"_ the PI immediately asked.

 _"As I was about to close my shop, I heard weird goofy voices in the dressing room, you know the following; then, while you were on your way, I took a cup of coffee with me and checked back in every cabin: no client, no thief, no ghost nobody! But I keep seeing clothes dragging on the floor, I tried to get them but I kept hearing voices and I don't dare to pick them up."_ the cashier explained.

 _"Anything else?"_ the disguised girl interrogated.

 _"Well, just some mobility problems when I first tried to get the clothes, I spilled coffee on it!"_

 _"Not you, the problem."_ Daemona clarified.

 _"I think the voices are still there, be careful!"_

 _"A problem with a solution straight to the point, lucky shot for a first try!"_ the PI girl talked and entered the back door.

The phantom investigator was now in the shop finished her way through the dressing room, where voices were beginning to increase in volume, she strode over the clothes scattered on the ground, ear tending.

 _"Sir, I'm afraid we will not find this here, everything here seems so...outdated!"_ a voice sounding kinda serious explained.

 _"The months approach and I mustn't be late, we must find these artifacts."_ another voice panicked, he also sounded goofy despite its neat vocabulary.

 _"I thought we found that in caves."_ a third voice said.

 _"HEY, watch out, comrade, you almost dropped your material on me_." the first serious voice warned.

Daemona was getting closer and closer to the cabin, remaining silent to not let the voices flee. She was very lucky, the shop really had a lot of space: all the clothes available which didn't drag on the ground were suspended on a wall, and she wouldn't risk making a big noise by hitting a potential row.

When she was finally in front of door, she put her VacuumOrmal on the ground and pulled the door with force, it wasn't locked. What she saw though, shocked her.

Two transparent dark-looking knights were standing in front of Daemona and had spears in their hand. Each had an armor and helmet so there was no big difference, but one was bulkier than the other.

Both were looking at the little girl, taken by surprise and trying to hide her weapon.

" _Aaaaah! Ghosts? REAL GHOSTS? Well, that's scary, I thought they never existed"_ said casually Daemona. _"Now that I know that, let's-"_

She gets interrupted by the left bulky knight pointing his spear to her.

 _"What a jester is doing, interfering with our lord?"_

 _"What lord?"_ Daemona asked. _"And I think the real question is what two ghost knights are doing in San Francisco. You've been buried here?"_

 _"We're here because we made the vow to protect our lord during his project!"_ the right thin knight answered.

 _"Fool, don't reveal our vow to any traveler! She will interfere!"_ his knight friend directed.

 _"No, maybe we can work this out."_ proposed the PI.

"Silence!" shouted the bulky knight, rising his spear.

Taken by surprise, Daemona nevertheless backed up and dodged the blow, finishing left to her vacuum.

" _Don't force me to use the strong way!"_ objected the girl.

She settled the vacuum to average power and pressed the on button, but no noise was getting out of it. She pressed the button a second time, still no result.

 _"Urg, why it's not working now? Of course!"_ Daemona complained, as she rose up her head, she saw the same offensive bulky knight charging at her, spear pointing. _"AAAAGH!"_

She avoided the knight a second time, letting him bump against suspended clothes on the wall.

"…Uuuuh…why he didn't pass through the wall?" the improvised name PI thought to herself.

Meanwhile, the other knight started talking to someone who seemed to be behind him.

 _"Sir, go back to your throne, we will handle this case."_

 _"Be careful and call me, I want to see you ali- ….in function!"_ the semi-acute voice said, then, it disappeared.

Meanwhile, the young girl checked in the battery compartment of her vacuum by opening the cover: the two batteries were still there, but one was misplaced and didn't make the object working.

" _Quick quick quick!"_ Daemona panicked, trying to replace the battery.

She didn't have time for that and replacing the cover; she saw the second slim knight preparing a horizontal blow with the spike of his lance.

With no other object than the vacuum for defending herself, the investigator put the cover in her disguise, lifted up the small vacuum with her two bare hands and took two steps to the right to avoid the blow. Her opponent replicated with another horizontal blow, which dampened on the vacuum the protagonist used to protect herself. Under the shock of it, she stepped back a few steps and fell on the ground, still holding her weapon.

She looked around her quickly to analyze the situation: the knight she was facing with prepared his charge, and the bulky knight whose spear was stuck on the clothes and in the wall managed to get it out and charged by behind, Daemona Prune was surrounded from front and behind.

She could still escape, but not by protecting herself, the ginger girl oriented her weapon to a wall in distance left to her and rolled it, pushing it with her foot.

After that maneuver, she stood up and ran as fast as she could, catching the rolling object, this plan was calculated to gain distance against the two knights.

" _These knights are too big, I don't think the average power of this will work"_ the lone member PI evaluated.

Once the vacuum stopped, the courageous kid was fast in her maneuvers: she adjusted the position of the misplaced battery; put the cover out of her suit back where it belonged; adjusted the VacuumOrmal to full power and pressed on the button.

The warning on the sheet was over the top, but the suction was so strong that some clothes on the ground dragged through the vacuum pipe, them the closest ghost-knight, who was the bulky one, was aspired with great force towards the vacuum, dropping his lance.

His legs were aspired in the vacuum pipe a few seconds later; his knight friend grabbed the lance on the ground and attempted to defend himself. Grabbing the vacuum by the handle and rolling it towards the other knight, Daemona waved to him with a smug smile.

" _This ambush will not be tolerated!"_ the safe knight said.

Unfortunately, it was taking time for the first knight to be vacuumed, even at full power, and since the higher half of his body obstructed the pipe, the other knight was safe from any absorption. He caught the vacuum with his two spears and, with a strong power, rolled it towards Daemona, who released the handle and dodged just in time to not be injured, the vacuum continued to roll towards the wall and crashed on it.

" _NO!"_ the vacuum user shouted.

The vacuum ghost cleaner was out or order, the shock against the wall was so strong that pieces were detached and the abducted ghost knight was free.

" _You almost hurt me there!"_ the free knight remarked to his friend.

" _Sorry"_ he responded.

"… _I'm getting out of here!"_ The PI implied to herself!

Suddenly, a strange object with a sheet scotched on it slipped against Daemona's feet, she took it and hurried herself to read the sheet.

 _ **Use this object and get out of here, I'll be outside waiting for you!**_

A red controller-looking thing with two big red lights, a small red lever, and finally a yellow and red pipe on the front.

"What's this, a technologic vuvuzela?" asked herself Daemona.

She pointed it at the two ghosts in front of her. Red and green waves was getting out of the pipe, a buzzing sound was heard, the two ghosts stopped walking and covered their ear, stifling shouts.

Daemona backed off towards the exit door, still using her new equipment, until she got out of the and met with the cashier, she stopped using her object while the person asked her…

" _So, was it my imagination?"_

" _Two knight ghosts, I'll find what their deals are, but I have to go!"_ Daemona rapidly said, running away.

A few meters later, on the street, the twelve-year old girl met a black hooded man wearing a black coat, standing 10 meters from her, facing each other. Judging by his high height, he seemed like an adult. The hooded adult started to guide her.

" _Follow me!"_

With a closer look, he was familiar…

" _You are the guy I shared my hair gel case with? You gave me this?"_ Daemona asked, showing the buzzing weapon.

" _We can't discuss here, follow me!"_ answered the dude, turning around and walking.

Curious and wanting to have a straight answer, Daemona followed the man; keeping a certain distance just in case someone would suspect something from the window of his house. It was night and Daemona Prune found this strange to follow an unknown man in the middle of the night, but if he was really the one who gave her this object and somewhat saved her, he could not be dangerous.

The walking went for some minutes, before finally entering in a big open garage. Before she entered, Daemona had the time to read the panel close to the roof.

" _Navarro repairs"_ she read as she entered in the building. _"I guess YOU'RE Navarro?"_

The man lifted his hood and removed his coat, he was indeed an adult: Brown eyes; black soul patch; dark blue hair with some touch of lavender; dark red dense jacket with a green pocket on the right arm; and finally, blue pants.

" _You can call me Professor Navarro."_

" _Well, I owe you one, this thing didn't captured what I wanted, but it permitted me to run away."_ Daemona said, looking at the object he subtly gave her.

" _I usually use it to get away thieves from my car, but on these types of persons? Might call it the Ether-disruptor."_ clarified Professor Navarro. _"But first things first, what were you doing alone in the middle of the night? I was about to close and I saw you walking with a…vacuum, it's dangerous for a kid to not be accompanied at night, you could have put yourself in danger like I saw there."_

Daemona scratched her head, with a little shameful face, giving the name _"Ether-disruptor"_ to Professor Navarro, and she looked at him while he put the invention on a table.

Since the professor kind of saved her and offered her a gadget in front of two ghosts, she evaluated he was trustworthy enough to really talk about her true aspirations.

" _I'm sorry, well…my name is Daemona Prune, and you may think I'm crazy, but I got a call for solving a ghost problem, I named myself Phantom Investigator and since I grew up with mystery-solving and ghost shows on TV….I kinda dreamed wanted to be an hero."_ she awkwardly smiled. _"You already know, with that hair gel…"_

Navarro remained silent and smiled by crossing his arms, he was impressed on the inside, but still, all of this was dangerous to a 12-year old kid, he kept discipline outside.

" _So…I guess you want my house's phone number so you can drive me back to my parents?"_ Prune asked, half-closing her eyes and avoiding contact with a sad mouth.

" _I'm not here to report you."_ declared the professor.

The sad face of Daemona changed into a wide open smile.

" _I am officially in a dream!"_

" _Well, what kid wants his dream to be broken?"_ replied Navarro, patting the little girl's shoulder.

The Professor showed Daemona the entire room and some gadgets placed, the disguised investigator looked everywhere. It was almost like a laboratory, there were so many prototypes, plans and technology-looking objects, she was not sure _"Professor"_ was the correct term to Navarro.

"Nice laboratory and gadgets, it's….beep-boopy!" Daemona complimented

" _It's a shop, but thanks."_ confided Navarro.

" _You sell some unusual things for a vendor."_ the child remarked. _"Seriously, Ether-Disruptor?"_

" _Let's say I….invent and repair things to help people."_

" _Oh, fantastic!_ " Daemona waited a few seconds before asking an indiscreet question. _"Do you think that…maybe…you could offer or working on gadgets for me? I know we barely know each other but since you lent me something…"_

" _I suppose I could help you, Daemona, but you have to be careful."_

" _Yes, I know, ghosts are dangerous, I was really in danger back there."_ she remarked.

" _It's not everyone who is evil, sometimes, they have a reason to do so, remember to talk before jumping into the action like before."_ the professor counseled.

" _OK!"_

" _And try to find some friends who could help you, investigating and hunting evil ghosts is not something you do alone."_

"… _I suppose…"_

" _And for what I will give you, please wait a few weeks before going out like that; I will contact you…..on your PI number."_ he winked.

Daemona Prune nodded happily to the indication, after this talk, the two walked outside the Navarro's repairs and waved each other.

" _I will see you soon!"_ Daemona said, walking away.

" _Take care of yourself!"_ Navarro answered!

After a few seconds, Daemona was completely out of Navarro's sight, the latter benefited of his moment alone to let out a few small laughs, with sad-looking eyes, but smiling.

" _She is just like her…"_

Meanwhile, Daemona pursued her walk.

" _I would've never thought to come across such an understanding man. …And there's much more phantom activity than I thought…he's right…I might need help…I need…help…I will ally-investigate!"_ the ginger PI decided, left index rising up.


	5. Quiet, but it comes, you don't deny it

During the preparation, friendships and ally-investigation had the time to be made, Daemona had to choose well for help, she was not going to take anyone who did not believe in ghosts or didn't had any interests in case-solving…

* * *

Three days have passed since Daemona and Navarro's meeting, it was morning-break in Lugosi Junior High School. In the alley, Kira walked with Jericho, who limped

" _So, how are your injured parts going?"_ Kira opened with a subject.

" _I can still walk, but I have to go slowly, and my shoulder, well…"_ The boy rolled his right sleeve to show a bandage on his right shoulder. "It's starting to heal." He rolls it back.

" _And you really don't know who threw you that thing?"_ Kira asked.

" _That thing?"_

" _Daemona showed me a bottle of hair gel this morning, apparently someone made you fall by throwing this on you…"_

" _Uh, reminding quickly…no… I looked at everybody's faces; nobody seemed like the kind to put hair gel on himself."_ Jericho explained.

As they talked, they walked towards Casey's locker, where he was putting his stuff in. Jericho noticed him and saluted him.

" _Hey!"_

Casey looked at Jericho with a curious face and then looked behind himself.

" _Yes, I'm talking to you, don't be surprised!"_ Jericho stated with a little laugh.

" _Hello, do you getting better?"_ Casey politely questioned, turning back to Jericho.

" _Yeah, and by the way, thanks to you and Kira for helping me, at least you two didn't stand there."_ The ginger boy thanked, patting Casey's shoulder with his left arm.

" _Ouch- Uh, heheh, that was really nothing, I like helping people, no matter what they think of me."_ the little boy with glasses responded with a shy smile.

" _What I think of you? We haven't really talked before, so what's the deal?"_ Jericho shrugged.

Casey felt relieved to not be judged by a kid like Jericho.

" _So, wanna hang out eventually? You seem like cool guys!"_ Jericho complimented.

Kira nodded, but Casey, blushing for some time, stuttered, he was really not used to such familiarity and compliment.

" _Y-y-y-y…"_

"… _What are you waiting for?"_ Kira looked at the nervous kid with a strange look.

" _HE SAID I WAS COOL."_ He just said very quickly, becoming redder. _"Ye…ye"_

" _Take your time, boy…"_ Jericho laughed.

" _Y…Yes, I would like to ha-hang out with you…how about now?"_ Casey smiled and nodded with Kira.

At this very moment, Daemona came in with the manual book of her history class, checking and flipping her pages. She knew where she was going, though; she came to see how Casey and Kira were going.

" _Hello friends!"_ Daemona saluted, still on her book. _"Aaaaaand…Jericho, right?"_

" _Right!"_

" _New clothes?"_ Kira asked.

Indeed, Daemona was wearing one of her few new clothes her parents bought to the shop earlier: a red shirt with a green cotton jacket and black sleeves on it; blue pants and brown shoes.

" _What can you know? I've been here for only four days!"_ Daemona answered with a bit of sarcasm, smiling.

Kira remained silent and closed her eyes a few seconds.

" _It is new clothes!"_ she affirmed.

" _OK, we really need to talk about this!"_ the casual red-haired girl whispered, looking Kira with a fascinated look.

" _About what?"_ Jericho asked, a bit off the conversation these 3 had. He was not with them this day.

" _Change of subject, Daemona, why are you going through your history book so fast? Are you predicting the answers of your future exams?"_ Casey asked, curious about what she's doing.

" _I understand her, sometimes me too I don't want to be too surprised."_ Jericho commented.

" _I'm looking by any information is there's a chapter dedicated to the medieval period, two knights have attacked me…"_

Daemona seriously said that to the only classmates she could trust in the current hour, but at the same time, she didn't directly say why she was there or what the knights were really…

…She was testing the other's reactions.

" _Uh, OK, and do you know how they looked?"_ Jericho casually asked.

" _What can we say except brave, handsome or generic?"_ Kira commented.

" _No, I have something…they were…generic…but one knight was bulkier than the other."_ Daemona prune indicated.

" _I don't think you will find precisely what you're looking for in this book. Even if it actually has a module talking about medieval, a lot of knights lived with the vow to protect their kings, they served as an army, and there could be thousands of them."_ Casey explained.

"… _Hm…I guess you're right, unfortunately for me, it's not school books who will help me."_ The ginger girl closed her book, looking disappointed. _"Well, I tried, see you at the school's cafeteria."_ She waved, going away.

While she went away, the three students were looking each other with a weird look, Kira Williams had the most suspicious look of them all, throwing a small gaze to Daemona.

" _Reassure me, I'm not the only who finds her strange these last few days?"_ Kira shared to the two boys.

Casey and Jericho shrugged.

" _She has an interest to ghosts and paranormal, I know that, she told us, do you think the knights she was talking were…ghosts? I could believe her..."_ Casey Samson affirmed.

" _Freaky, if ghosts actually exist, it would explain many things!"_ Jericho added, even if he was out of the situation, he seemed to know what he was talking about.

" _She's hiding us something, I'm sure. And let's be real Casey, I think we're all hiding something ourselves, so the possibility that ghosts are real are really high."_ Kira concluded.

" _Woooooh woooh, you include me in there?"_ questioned Jericho, surprised of the turned events.

" _You casually agree to a subject about ghosts who could be real and you don't even run away. Plus, don't forget that right now, I'm slowly starting to assume who I am."_ Kira said, poking her head.

Jericho gulped, but his eyes remained half-closed.

" _Kira…that game we played the other day…was that a real confession…was that actually something you made to let some things out that would make you feel better?"_ Casey remarked.

" _I don't know, how about you and your zipper mode?"_ Kira sarcastically replied with another question, crossing her arms.

Casey looked at the ground for a few seconds, an awkward silence stood by for a few seconds. Even Jericho didn't know what to say.

" _So, now we're playing statue?"_ Jericho broke the silence, he seemed worried.

" _Wow…"_ Casey ignored Jericho's comment and focused on Kira. _"I guess we all have something in common now, aren't we?"_

" _And it's coming from your mouth, now!"_ Kira smiled, pointing her classmate.

* * *

This afternoon, in Daemona's math class…

" _Brad?"_ Mr Samson called.

" _Present!"_

" _Darnel?"_

" _Present…"_

" _Daemona Prune?"_

" _I'm there! Better than ever!"_ She casually answered.

A small laugh came out of the class, Casey, who was at the very back, on the place Daemona chose and let down on her first day, sniggered, but not in a bad way of laughing of Daemona. He was laughing with her, because of what she said.

" _Casey Samson?"_ the math professor pierced his gaze towards him during his enumeration.

" _Present!"_ The boy said, trying to ignore the other students gaze.

His classmate Daemona turned back at him and the two waved each other with a closed mouth smile.

* * *

Later, at the end of the class, Daemona went out with Casey, going to their locker.

" _So, you stopped hiding from your fath-"_

" _Shhht."_ The teacher's son shushed.

There was a little silence, but nobody around them threw a remark to Casey, the boy noticed right now his reflexes.

" _Sorry about that, I'm still getting used to it. I'm sure one day, they'll get tired. For the moment, let's have fun with my familiarities."_ Casey realized.

" _And what about_ _ **"the speech of the death"**_ _, did he severely punished you?"_

"… _Surprisingly…no…he just said he didn't raise me up to be a discontinuer and told me to not start again or else he would check all my homework to see if I did them…"_

" _Your father has too much time for you, isn't it?"_

Casey sneezed on purpose at the word father, which Daemona tried to ignore.

" _Yeah…but it's Kira who's right, I shouldn't care about what someone who saw me for two seconds says, my ATCHOOfatherATCHOO and I are not their business."_

" _That's the spirit."_ Daemona encouraged.

The two comrades walked into Kira and Jericho, who was looking for them.

" _So, Daemona, are you ready for your next lesson?"_ Kira curiously asked.

" _I think it's…music? It's my first new lesson today, I'm not really a fan of perfect memorization..."_ She declared.

" _Oooooh yeah that just tilted in me, you've entered in this school two days after us, you were not in our class the first time."_ Casey explained.

" _Our? You three are in the same class?"_ Daemona deducted.

" _Oh yeah, you've missed something, Kira is a really good singer, she completely dominated the record player by trying it during the first lesson, it was so funny to watch everyone's reactions."_ Jericho told.

" _Heheh, I've been warned by the professor, but seriously, I really like the DJ profession, I had a miniature one at home when I was a child, and sometimes my father made me listen to this on radio during the bring-your-child-to-work day, I couldn't resist trying one for real!"_ Kira revealed. _"I have tapes on my walkman that uses this."_

" _I would love to see you try that!"_ Daemona suggested.

" _Hahaha, I don't want to get punished….unless you try to sing with me too?"_

" _Uuuuh, noooooooOOOO?"_ Daemona sarcastically replied, varying her tone.

" _Come ooooon, we will help you with your knight problem."_ Jericho sarcastically talked back.

The group of four kids all laughed together.

It was moments like that, moments we could relax before the real subject begins.

* * *

During the next week-end, Daemona was very busy, first things first, Navarro passed her one of the first gadgets that would eventually come to an hand: the specter detector.

As she entered her room with the new object, she noticed that her room was a mess: her blanket was on the ground, boxes and her grandmother's stuff were everywhere. Trying to stay calm, Daemona suddenly noticed a beeping sound, coming from her detector.

" _Something is in my room…"_

She looked everywhere, following the beeping sounds. Her search finished under her bed, where she laid down and looked under it…her PI disguise she improvised was there and something moved underneath it.

" _WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY DISGUISE?"_ the girl screamed.

* * *

Also, on three nights in a row, the new resident of San Francisco invited a friend to watch a spooky movie with her. And on all three nights, Daemona was doing the same thing…

* * *

" _Why are you not watching the movie? Look! The monster is going to appear, I thought you liked monsters! "_ Kira pulled Daemona's left sleeve.

Daemona and Kira were in the living room, Kira sat on the couch but Daemona was on the floor in front of the couch, playing the patience game with her cards. Each of the fours symbols were monsters instead of the usual ones.

" _Do you like my card game?"_ Daemona ignored, smiling.

" _It has a style, I guess."_ Kira rolled her eyes.

The future DJ continued watching the movie.

" _Why is he going there alone? …What I would give to actually be there and helping him."_ she confided, referencing about the movie's character.

Daemona didn't turn her head around too much, but she smiled and moved her pupils towards Kira.

* * *

" _GET OUT BY THE WINDOW, GET OUT BY THE WINDOW!"_ Casey nervously shouted to the TV, scared, while Daemona was still playing with her cards in the living room. _"Nooo, not through there, he's a zombie, he could have fall!"_

Same scenario than Kira, Casey was sitting on the couch. Daemona looked for a split second at the screen and went back to her card game, talking to Casey.

" _Indeed, he could go out by the window, you pay good attention to your surroundings."_

" _This is like basic spooky 101!"_ Casey added, shivering, he was really into the movie. _"How is he going to get out now?"_

* * *

Jericho was casually lying on his back, on the living room couch, with a bowl of popcorn on him; he ate while watching a spooky movie.

Daemona was with him, sitting on the floor, but this time, she was paying more attention to the movie, leaving her deck card of monsters.

" _The monster is coming, the monster is coming!"_ Daemona got excited.

" _Quick, the volume! I want to hear its robust roar!"_ Jericho smiled, into the movie too.

Daemona stood up and looked everywhere, the remote was not there. She was looking everywhere, not looking at Jericho.

" _Where it is…where it is?! Shoot, I have to lose it in an interesting moment. Oh well, going to use the TV!"_

" _Wait, I got it!"_

Daemona turned around; Jericho had the remote on his hand, smiling, and rose up the volume.

" _Wow…did you ever stood up?"_ Daemona remarked, curious.

" _Well duh, I was lying on it."_ Jericho looked away and shrugged.

His comrade, with a curious look, nevertheless went back in front of the couch, sitting down.

* * *

Days and week passed by, we are now in mid-september, during a day of school, Daemona was absent.

Kira and Casey were talking together, isolated outside in the same place they talked with Daemona, they both had a backpack.

" _Already absent? I wonder what happened, did she talk to you?"_ interrogated Casey.

"… _Uuuuum….she talked to me like usual…but one thing is sure, the reason she's not here is not because she's sick!"_

" _You kinda scare me, what this is all about? How can you surely know that?"_

Kira didn't had the time to respond, Jericho arrived holding his backpack with his two hands, he began to search inside.

" _Hey, you two, I've searched you everywhere. Did someone put this in your backpack?"_ Jericho whispered.

The ginger boy pulled out of his backpack a purple flexible poster-looking sheet, with a small green ghost on it and yellow letters written. Kira and Casey, surprised, removed their bag and searched in as well, the same poster that Jericho had for the two kids.

They took a look everywhere to see if no one else was there and rode the letter…


	6. The first meetings! It's amazing!

_**If you're reading this, come to my place after school at 5:00 pm, if you come, that means you're ready to help people.**_

 _ **Cheers, Daemona Prune.**_

 _ **P.S: DON'T SHOW THIS TO RANDOM PEOPLE!**_

After the lecture, there's been an awkward silence between the three students, until Casey realized something and talked to Jericho.

"… _You just took a risk there and didn't know if she gave it to us too didn't you? "_

" _Well…when you write something like that, it's for your friends, right? Excluding me, you're the students whose Daemona talked the most, so….mutual."_ Jericho concluded.

" _The important is that she invites us, all three, we all had that letter, so we're going in, I'm curious!"_ Kira decided. "We all know where she lives now."

" _It's probably just a regular invitation."_ Casey retorted.

 _"Yeah, with the **"help people"** thing and ghost draw on it, boooooh that's regular!"_ Jericho mocked, shaking the sheet in front of Casey.

 _"Haha, hey stop!"_ Casey laughed.

The girl of the trio put her hand on her forehead, discouraged.

* * *

At 5:00 pm, Kira, Casey and Jericho entered into Daemona's house, for the moment, everything was normal.

 _"Daemona, are you here? I've brought music!"_ Kira shouted, holding a CD.

Nobody responded, but a few seconds later, Daemona's mom went in front of them.

" _Oh, you must be Daemona's new friends, you all came here together?"_

" _Yup, we're learning to know each other in big group, do you know where she is, maam?"_ Jericho asked.

" _She's in her room, tell her that dinner will be ready soon."_ Daemona's mom answered.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Daemona's room, everything was so different. The door behind her had a grey circle with two green circles: one with a purple P, and one with a purple I. There were some boxes everywhere, books on the purple couch, and Daemona was sitting deep in the room, looking at her new eye-shape looking screen computer. On her desk was a green technologic phone on a base that was connected to the desk.

All alone, she was playing a racing videogame, thanks to one of her video games console plugged on the screen, and she wore her disguise, same as before, the only difference was that her green sleeping mask was replaced by a regular green mask, without black elastic, and instead of her shoes, she was wearing green big boots.

" _Come on, come on, almost first!"_ Daemona steered the control stick of her controller like her life depended on it, leaning her chair a few meters on the side.

Her game was interrupted by a beeping sound; she knew what that was about.

" _Woops!"_ She unplugged her console just in time, threw the controller away and took a serious look, turned around.

" _Okay, seriously, an elevator? Some house that is."_ Kira directly remarked to Daemona, who was behind her with Jericho and Casey.

Daemona turned around, showing her friends in front of the PI elevator door her new disguise and welcoming them.

" _So, you actually came."_ she smiled.

" _Daemona? Is that you?"_ Casey interrogated, surprised.

" _Creative outfit huh? What do you think?"_ the disguised girl seeked.

" _You look like a count, almost close to a vampire."_ Kira honestly answered.

" _A vampire is close to my job!"_ The red girl retorted, trying to get that as a compliment. _"But more seriously, I've chose all three of you to come here because you opened up to my tastes, I trust you and I think you can help me found my team."_

" _Looking by the allure of your room, how you're talking and all the technology, I guess we are spirit chasers."_ Jericho concluded.

" _Phantom Investigators."_ Daemona corrected. _"No case to big, too small, or too slimy, we knew each other for only one month, but I tested you and I know you can help me. Now-"_

The leader interrupted herself, she remarked that Jericho, Casey and Kira stayed right in front of her, saying nothing and smiling. She resumed her talking by a little change of subject.

" _Wait… you're not running away or call me weird like my past friends did every time I talked about ghosts? You're seriously going to do this?"_

" _If ghosts are actually real and we're going to do all of this together, I see no interest to hide myself anymore."_ Jericho declared.

The ginger boy lifted his right hand towards the books on the couch and green aura appeared around him. One of the books moved all by himself in the direction of Jericho's hand, catching it.

" _Wow…"_ Everybody else just shouted, shocked.

" _It's practical to do chores with this talent. And besides, being a PI seems more fun than being at school or even do sports."_ Jericho commentated.

" _So…remember when I panicked with my fath- I mean, Mr Samson the past month? It was not exactly the only reason I was stressed out…"_

After these words, Casey closed his eyes, concentrated and changed into a familiar shape of chair: blue and red.

" _The broken chair….I knew it!"_ Daemona realized while Casey changed back.

" _I guess investigating can get me some time away from my father!"_ the nervous kid evaluated.

" _And these last weeks, this was not a game; I was really READING your mind."_ Kira said to Daemona. _"I knew something was wrong, but THAT? …If this team can help people, count on me."_

" _Wow…I'm kinda….jealous of your powers…just so you know, I don't really have superhuman strength."_ the red girl clarified.

" _But you're a master of disguise, that's half-true."_ Casey said.

For a rare occasion since she got in San Francisco, Daemona had a sincere smile for people of her age, she knew she could trust them and made them join her team, when someone like these kids have metaphysical powers, he can't deny there's ghostly events going on in his surroundings.

Motivated by these revelations, the leader stood up of her chair and started explaining her case, showing the bumpy hair gel she picked up last August.

" _Here's my current case to show you how it's serious: I picked up the hair gel that fell on Jericho's shoulder when he hurt himself. It's bumpy and judging by it and how our friend fell off his skateboard, it surely did not come for someone. It looks like it fell very high from the sky!"_

"… _It hurt my shoulder so much it could make sense!"_ Jericho approved.

" _And a hair was on it."_ Daemona added. _"To take a chance, once I got a new delivered invention:_ _ **"the specter detector"**_ _, here's what it showed."_

The PI took the specter detector: radar with a big screen showing four images with a letter and a gauge underneath them; a yellow glue-looking thing with an S; a purple ghost with a G, a pink small-head of a demon with a D, and red devil-eyed fire with an E.

The D section and the S section were beeping, the D gauge flashed to one line; very low, and the S gauge was full.

" _The hair gel is possessed?"_ Jericho concluded, uncertain.

" _No, the hair on it!"_ corrected Daemona. _"The detector is showing traces of a demon, it's very low because it belonged to someone!"_

" _But wait, the S is full."_ Kira showed.

" _S must mean sprite"_ Casey shared his conclusion.

" _Does it mean it's dangerous?"_ Kira asked.

" _Oh, that? It's just some goofy wad of gum I captured by myself in my room, he's close to the detector and interfering with the analysis."_ Daemona declared.

Then, a really funny-sounding voice came out from behind Daemona, a living pink chewing-gum with green eyes, arms and legs was enclosed in a transparent dome, magnetized on a plate. Everyone, especially the three new members, looked at him in a dubious look, raised eyebrow.

" _Hey, use another proper term than wad when you're talking about Wad!"_ The name's Wad said.

" _Yeah yeah, bye bye!"_ Daemona waved, took the plate, put it on the ground and kicked it under her bed while Wad uttered a cry of surprise. Her friends looked at her, remaining silent.

" _So, are you going to burn it or something?"_ Kira asked.

" _He's not dangerous; I just captured him because he makes a mess every time I go out, and it's the first paranormal case I actually abducted, maybe he can offer information for our team."_

Before anyone else could say his word or continue talking about the hair gel case, the green phone on Daemona's desk rang, she took it and responded.

" _Phantom Investigators, sprites in your room? We pass the broom."_

Ignoring her friend's gazes, who sarcastically wondered where she got that, Daemona remained silent for ten seconds.

" _OK, stay calm, we're coming, explain us here."_ the disguised girl suggested before hanging up and turning towards her teammates. _"Well, here's our case, a girl wants to see us in her home, and she stuttered a lot on the phone so I suggested we went directly to her."_

" _Is that safe?"_ Casey hesitated.

" _We have gadgets, and some of us have powers, plus someone is watching over us if things are turning out bad."_ Daemona reassured, opening up a special watch she wore on her right arm.

On the watch's screen, there was an image: Professor Navarro who was in his shop.

" _I've heard everything, make good use of your gadgets and powers, everyone_!" Navarro said on the screen.

Suddenly, Jericho widely opened his eyes, he was going to forget something.

" _Hey, Daemona, before we go solve this case, we have to eat."_ the boy warned. _"Your mother told us to call you for dinner, she probably have something for us, I'm hungry."_

The masked kid remained motionless with a stoic face for a few seconds, looking at everyone and at her phone, after a long hesitation, she took up the headset and called back the person, keeping gaze at her friends.

" _Stay calm, we're coming in, like, twenty minutes, don't touch anything."_ she abruptly said before hanging up, then she pulled off her disguise and mask, revealing her red shirt and casual pants underneath and ran like crazy towards the door. _"Last arrived eats what I don't like!"_

Kira, Casey and Jericho looked at each other, with an awkward look.

* * *

Twenty-five minutes later, the PI gang went to the meeting point: a normal house with two floors. They directly knocked into the entrance door, a long brown-haired and green-eyed teenager without makeup opened the door. She was wearing a blue skirt and a blue-purple sweater.

" _Oh, fi-fi-finally you-you came, my-my name is Am-Amanda."_ the teenager stuttered, who seemed like under the shock.

" _Why are you stuttering?"_ Jericho indiscreetly questioned.

" _St-still…under shock…scared!"_ Amanda abruptly answered, unclear.

" _Calm down and tell us what happened."_ Daemona went, straight on the point.

" _G-Got…attacked…my-my per…"_

" _Amanda, dear, go relax, you're nervous, I'll take care of our invites."_ a male voice kindly ordered.

While Amanda went to her room, the PIs entered into the house, whose entrance leaded straight into the dining room, where her father was waiting for them sitting on a chair, a blond adult with blue eyes. As soon as Daemona saw him, he was awfully familiar; he was just more casually dressed.

" _Hey, you're the guy I met at the clothes shop the past month, and that I….let alone…sorry about that."_ Daemona awkwardly apologized.

" _It's OK!"_ reassured the cashier. _"The voices departed as you were gone, and you have a chance to redeem yourself, now that I see you have company. I told my daughter to call you."_

Jericho, Kira and Casey looked for places to seat, there were three other chairs. Daemona, meanwhile, took her specter detector and analyzed the room, no signal of any paranormal events.

" _I don't think I can really help you by saying this, but Amanda was really stressed out while she entered the house. She went to a perfumery with her mother, and she was calm before."_

" _Did she go to the same as mine? Maybe I've met her."_ Kira commented.

" _The most important thing I know is that before her and her mother went in, she asked her to do an outside chore, and something might have happened outside because she went in, thrilled and stuttering, I only heard that something might have attacked her. My poor daughter, she could've been hurt."_ the father whined, hand on his forehead. _"And my wife feels terribly guilty."_

" _And who attacked her?"_ Daemona interrogated.

" _There was nobody when I checked outside, but I know someone passed by because of multiple different footprints on my grass. And Amanda isn't currently in a sane mental state to tell us what really happened."_

" _Shaken and unable to speak in shock, classic."_ Jericho commented.

" _Yeah, but more than twenty minutes after the attack?"_ Casey remarked.

" _My daughter is really nervous and fragile-hearted, she is going to be sixteen soon and many things still scare her as if she was a child, when something like this happens, this is hard to forget for her."_

" _We will take care of her, don't worry, and if we must, we will stay all night long."_ Daemona reassured.

"… _Well, that's a relief, I'm counting on you."_

The father stood up and went to his chamber. Navarro, on Daemona's watch screen, started talking.

" _So, how this is going?"_

" _Well, the case is starting, and I think it's really the best that we interrogate the girl."_ Kira suggested.

" _You've heard it like us; she isn't currently in a good mental state to talk about the attack. We can investigate outside, looking for clues."_ Daemona proposed instead.

" _Not if I read her mind. If she hasn't forgotten about it, it will be easy to conclude what she saw."_ Kira argued.

" _Don't start to argue, kids, your both proposals are not something to be neglected"_ settled Navarro.

" _How about you and Jericho take care of Amanda, while Casey and I go search for clues outside?"_ Proposed Daemona to Kira.

" _Why me?"_ Jericho argued.

" _You seem good to calm people, you're really chill while Kira has a big soft heart and can read her thoughts, she will surely calm down"_ Daemona deducted.

" _Okay, we will work like that, go rejoin us if you find something."_ Kira indicated, smiling.

Both teams went their way…

* * *

Kira and Jericho were now in Amanda's room, she was lying on the bed, lower members under the blanket, still shivering. Kira's eyes were closed and we saw purple waves coming of her head.

" _Her mind is a confused disorder."_ she whispered to Jericho. _"I can't properly read it."_

" _Wh-what are you doing? Wh-Why are you silent? Do-don't open your eyes and make a gi-gigantic scream!"_ Amanda stuttered, scared.

" _OK Amanda. Stay calm, we're here!"_ Jericho calmly said, close to her. He was looking everywhere and saw a closet, he began to search in. _"Maybe there's a plush in her…or maybe…..yeeeeeah."_

Jericho saw two slippers shaped like panda feet and tucked them in his hands, while turning back to the girls.

" _Don't worry, Doctor PandaPaws will take care of you, here, warm yourself and relax."_ he brought the covers close to Amanda's head. _"Why am I doing this?"_ he thought.

" _I heard that, continue!"_ Kira communicated by thought.

Jericho jumped up and let a little scream after these invading talks, Amanda screamed right after.

" _Nice work, Jericho!" Kira blamed, eyes still closed._

" _Can you please advertise before invading other people's mind like that?"_ he angrily said under Kira's little laugh. He took a few seconds to breathe and talked back to Amanda. _"OK, you poor thing, say to Doctor Pandapaws what happened to you. "_

A little more reassured, but not calm yet, Amanda nervously stuttered one word.

" _Per…perfu-fume!"_

" _Perfume….it's what she brought back from the shop, do you think it's possessed?"_ Jericho talked to Kira.

" _I'm a little busy right now, pass it to Daemona."_

* * *

Meanwhile, outside, Daemona walked her detector everywhere, with the help of Casey.

" _The guy mustn't have checked closely, there's goop in some of the footsteps."_ he remarked.

The specter detector's ghost gauge flashed and beeped, it was to the middle while the demon gauge was at a lower level.

" _It's mess out there, footsteps everywhere, middle level, goop, no doubt, there's been a fight and Amanda must have defended herself."_

" _So we're facing material ghosts who want to destroy humans?"_ Casey questioned.

" _I don't know, we have to keep searching. And if it's the case, I hope you still prefer being attacked by a ghost than being at home with your father."_ The girl leader sarcastically replied.

"… _Haha…true."_ Casey laughed while pursuing his investigation to the left grass.

" _Hey Daemona!"_ Jericho opened the window from the second floor and levitated the perfume bottle towards Daemona, still wearing one panda slipper on his left hand. _"Do you know if there's ghost or demon traces on it?"_

Daemona caught the bottle and the specter detector flashed, small traces of ghost and demon, but still very low.

" _Paranormal traces on it, but it's not possessed, continue to interrogate Amanda."_ Daemona ordered, throwing the bottle to Jericho, who just caught it with his telekinesis powers.

While the ginger boy closed the window, Casey went right close to his friend.

" _Why was he wearing a panda slipper?"_

" _Don't ask, maybe they advanced on something."_ Daemona went back to analyze the steps on the grass.

After a few seconds of looking at the grass, Casey remarked a full body printed not far away.

" _Daemona, come here, I think someone might have fall."_

Her specter detector still in hands, Daemona came close to the body print and something odd happened, the beeping sound accelerated.

" _The detector! The ghost traces have increased."_ Daemona also noticed a garage not too far away. _"Could it be…."_

Back at Amanda's room, the teenager was more calm, Kira could read her mind properly, eyes still closed.

" _I wish I had a camera right now."_ Kira commented, holding a laugh, referring to Jericho's show.

" _You're such adorable, you make me laugh."_ Amanda quietly giggled and not stuttered anymore.

" _Hey, she liked it."_ the boy responded, still having the slippers on his hands. _"So, what does it say?"_

" _She has been attacked, that's for sure…she was carrying a bag with the perfume she bought…..and…."_ Kira stopped reading her mind and opened her eyes in shock.

" _What?"_

"… _.Another presence is interfering with mine…Amanda think the ghosts are still here, and really not far."_

"… _I ….I knocked them unconscious! …It was scary that I could actually hit them."_ Amanda finally declared by herself. Kira paused.

" _You knocked them OUTSIDE? But we didn't saw…."_

Jericho quickly removed Amanda's panda slippers and leaned himself to the open window of the room, he only saw Daemona and Casey walking towards a garage.

" _There's no one outside except our friends."_ As soon as he said that, Kira rejoined him, leaning outside.

The ghost gauge of Daemona's specter detector was on the max level, she was close to the garage.

" _Bingo!"_ she exclaimed.

" _WATCH OUT DAEMONA!"_ Kira shouted out of the window, Daemona turned back.

" _What? We're just here. It's not like we were on the road, we're not going anywhere!"_

And at that very moment, the garage's two metal doors opened violently, revealing two ghost knights with helmets on.

" _You are not going anywhere!"_ the left knight shouted.

Jericho looked at the ghosts with a surprised look, Kira gasped, Casey shouted, Daemona remained silent looking at the two knights, afraid. Even Navarro, on Daemona's watch screen, who saw the scene, had a worried look…


	7. So unexpected it confuses my rhymes

" _Don't move!"_ the right thin knight said.

" _Wait, I already saw you!"_ Daemona ranged her detector inside her suit and pointed at the knights, frowned eyebrows.

" _Yeah yeah, you're that farcical intruder who never ceases to meddle with the affairs of our lord. And this time, we will walk right past you and your miserable subjects."_ The left bulky knight warned, lance at his hand.

" _Miserable subjects?"_ Casey repeated, feeling insulted.

" _Subjects? These are my coworkers and friends, If you're really that much straight to the point, I will not let you hurt them."_ Daemona warned, remaining brave.

 _"You don't understand, clown…"_ the thin knight began before getting interrupted.

" _OK: clown, farcical, jester, stop it!"_ Daemona lifted her tone, hand pointing at her suit. _"This is my outfit mission and I like it, don't use wicked names about my suit to describe me, I'm DAEMONA!"_

" _Anyways, that is not the point, we will really walk right PAST you!"_

The two knights began to charge, Daemona and Casey put themselves in defense position, but in reality, the knights rounded them to make their way into the entrance.

" _Oh no they will not!"_ Jericho stretched his hand out the windows towards the door, with green aura around him and shut the door closed.

The thin knight turned the handle of the entrance, without success.

" _Witchcraft! The door is locked, we can't enter"_ he complained.

" _Don't worry Lambequin, maybe we can't go through walls, but we can still fly."_ his bulky friend said, pointing the window where Daemona was climbing with the help of a blue and red ladder.

" _Isn't it more witchcraft to make use to, Andreas?"_ Lambequin remarked.

" _We are ghosts now, we can still perform our duty."_ Andreas said while nodding.

Daemona hurried herself to get into Amanda's room. Once she got there, with the help of Jericho and Kira, she lifted up the ladder and the room and it changed back to an human, it was Casey, sitting on the ground, who used his powers for the first time in a mission.

" _Nice solution, Casey."_ Daemona complimented.

" _Wh-wh-what's going on?"_ Amanda stuttered, getting afraid again.

Unfortunately, the PIs didn't saw Lambequin flying towards to open window into Amanda's room as she screamed. Kira looked outside and Andreas the bulky was about to enter too, she closed the window just in time, letting Andreas bumping his head against the glass, he shook his head and went away.

" _Well, that's one of them."_ Kira assured, turning back to the gang.

Daemona, Jericho, Kira and Casey were in front of Amanda's bed and faced Lambequin the thin knight, who was standing up.

" _Don't hurt Amanda!"_ warned Casey.

" _Where is it?"_ Lambequin began searching in the room, not even looking at the gang _. "Where is the artifact?"_

" _Artifact?"_

" _What is he doing? We're right in front of him."_ Kira said, with a disillusioned look, she started to shake her hands _. "YOO-HOO, ARE YOU BLIND?"_

" _I think he's not really after Amanda, but he's looking for something who belongs to her…"_ Casey quickly deducted.

" _Could it be…the perfume?"_ Daemona rumored, whispering.

Jericho, meanwhile, noticed that Lambequin started to search in the drawer of the room.

" _I see it, time to..."_

" _No, sorry, it's closed!_ "Jericho shouted, using his telekinisia to close the drawer on Andreas's right hand.

While holding a yell, Lambequin used his free left hand holding his weapon to throw it towards the gang, who avoided it, splitting each other.

" _OK, ENOUGH, I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!"_ Amanda got out of the room, running.

Lambequin used all this distraction to finally get the perfume from the drawer.

" _Oh, goody, my work here is done!"_ he celebrated and rushed in direction of the window, taking his weapon in the way.

" _Someone make use of me!"_ Casey ordered.

The boy shapeshifted into a metal shield and Kira threw it like a frisbee towards the knight, a big sound resonated in the room, everyone covered their ears while the enemy was standing still for a few seconds, his armor shaking, meanwhile, Jericho levitated the spear of the knight and brought it to his hand.

" _OW!"_ Casey shapeshifted back to himself on the ground, hand on his head, hurt. _"Kira, I wanted to be used as a shield, it was not a frisbee!"_

" _Oh, sorry, but look, he's almost knocked out, and disarmed."_

" _A good time to make it go away."_ Daemona went out the Ether-distruptor and was about to use it at the knight. _"Good night, let me tuck you!"_

Suddenly, the window opened wide and a strong gale lifted the blanket on Daemona, who didn't saw anything and dropped the Ether-distruptor.

" _Hey, I'm not sleepy!_ " Daemona struggled with the blanket.

Meanwhile, a little blue demon with wings, protruding yellow eyes, pustules, hairy eyebrows and purple hair around his body entered in the room by the open window and saw Lambequin.

" _It's taking you long, do you have it?"_ the demon questioned, he's looking as his two hands and notice the perfume.

" _...I'm catching that!"_ Kira thought to herself.

As Kira ran and attempted to catch the demon, Daemona, blinded by blankets, stumbled into her, hitting her.

" _Aow, Daemona, please get ou- AAAAH, MY FOOT!"_ Kira yelled, as she was stuck with Daemona and her blankets, about to fall on the ground.

Jericho and Casey rushed in to help Daemona and Kira and pulled out the blanket at the same time Daemona did a big gesture to get rid of it. The blanket was now on the two boys, who fell on the ground next to the two paranormal intruders.

" _Goodness demonious, what is this mess?"_ the blue demon questionned while Daemona and Kira helped the boys.

" _Don't pay attention, we have it, teleport us at home, my lord."_ Lambequin answered, finally got himself together from the hit.

" _No, I need to be a few meters away from these mortals, just to be sure, they're...moving..kinda a lot."_ the demon suggested while looking at the struggle between the four kids and the blanket.

The slim knight flied through the window, followed by his lord, who flied too. At that very moment, the four PIs finally got rid of the blanket and were all standing up. Daemona shouted, pointing the demon.

" _Don't let him escape."_

Casey changed himself into a lasso, Kira took it and threw the loop towards the flying demon outside. Unfortunately missing it, she brought the lasso back to her and it changed back to Casey.

" _Quick, follow him."_ Daemona ordered to her gang.

Jericho, still holding the spear, and Kira followed Daemona outside the room, but Casey stayed here, looking through the window and backing up a few meters from it, preparing himself, serious-looking.

" _The window...no one listens to my paranormal 101!"_ he thought to himself, referring to the movie he saw with Daemona.

Casey then took a run towards the window, jumped on the bed who was right in front of it and pushed himself outside the window in dive position, in mid-air and outside, he shapeshifted into a woodpecker to fly towards the demon and try to harass him.

* * *

Meanwhile, the rest of PI team went outside, followed by Amanda's father, who stood at the entrance.

" _What was that mess?"_ told the father.

" _Well, good news, your daughter will be fine, she is not in danger, bad news, we still have to deal with the case."_ Kira said while running. Daemona checked on her watch to talk to Navarro.

" _Navarro, we might need a lift, do you have a car or-"_

" _I'm already here!"_

Navarro was in his red car on the street, listening to music, as the kids got close to the car, Navarro opened the right window and lowered his music.

" _Where's Casey?"_ he asked.

They all looked everywhere, until Jericho saw on the sky a woodpecker with brown curly hair and glasses chasing a blue flying demon.

" _What is he doing?"_ he asked himself with a panicked tone.

" _Quick, get in, I will try to follow these two."_ Navarro ordered.

Daemona went in front, Kira and Jericho behind. The ginger boy but the spear side to him.

" _Watch out for shortcuts!"_ Navarro shouted while driving, following Casey and the flying demon.

In the sky, Casey the woodpecker started to gained advantage and getting himself close to his prey.

 _"OK!"_ the flying demon started. _"I think now this is a good dis- YEAOWCH!"_

He got interrupted by Casey, who started to use its pointy beak to attack his feet. He shouted help to Lambequin but he was gone.

" _Eeeeeh, no no no!"_ the demon whined while flying lower.

Casey's assault resumed, but the monster was surprisingly agile, with pure luck, he avoided the woodpecker's shots, nearly hitting a high tree in some times.

" _Ergh, the human world is such a mess!"_ he complained.

Downside, in Navarro's prototype, the kids looked at Casey, almost fighting with the demon.

" _I don't know what he has in mind, but he won't make it alone."_ Kira warned to the gang.

" _They're too far away for me to use my Ether Distruptor!"_ Daemona judged and looked.

" _Do you think we could go get a snack pronto?"_ Jericho asked, out of subject.

" _Are you serious? We just had dinner all together."_ Kira looked at her friend, incredulous.

" _Growth spurt, ever heard of it?"_ he answered with another question.

" _Calm down, kids, and find a way to help your friend from distance."_ Navarro suggested, while driving.

" _Distance….DISTANCE!"_ tilted Jericho.

The kid took the crank on his side and opened the window, he then used his telekinesis power to bring some rocks on the sides of road with his hand, he put a lot of them in Kira and Daemona's hand.

" _Maybe it will bother him and slow him down if we do this."_

Jericho levitated other rocks on the road and tried to throw them at the demon, the girls imitated him, opening their window and using all their forces to throw them really high.

" _HEY, WOOOH, CAREFUL, AM I A PUNCHING BAG AND I DON'T KNOW IT?"_ Casey shouted , almost receiving some rocks.

" _I SWEAR WE'RE TARGETTING HIM!"_ Jericho shouted back, in the transport.

The flying demon chuckled and continued to fly away. As the rocks stopped be thrown, the shapeshifted woodpecker rushed to him and, instead of attacking him with his beak, he just opened his mouth and chewed the purple hair around him.

" _Hey!"_ the demon stopped his rush and, still in the air, put his clawed hands on Casey to try get him away. _"You will ruin my allure!"_

Casey pulled the hair with his beak. The two flyers were now staying still in the air, struggling each other.

Meanwhile, Navarro stopped the car and all the rest of the team went out.

" _Jericho, your powers."_ Daemona indicated.

" _He's really too far, what do you think I am, almighty?"_

" _Lift a tree or something, you will have more chances!"_ Kira stated.

" _And hurt Casey? For some reason we're all missing the demon!"_

" _Try with a bigger but not dangerous object, and concentrate yourself, try to anticipate the pattern they're going to take."_ Daemona counseled.

" _They're standing STILL, what can I do?"_ Jericho argued.

" _I have a better idea!"_ Navarro went out of the car, opened the trunk and offered a small round gun with a big hole and a small lever to Daemona. _"Shoot it, and if it misses, pull the lever on…."_

Trusting the professor's word, the leader girl of the gang targeted the weapon's sight to the demon fighting with Casey. She shot and a small metal ball went out of the weapon, heading towards the two individuals. At this very moment, Casey pulled out some of the demon's purple hair and the force he used caused the two to split up, avoiding the metal ball.

The hairy woodpecker, with purple hair kept in his mouth, looked left to him to see what was shot, but he heard flapping sounds in front of him: the flying demon was getting away.

Casey resumed his chase after him, but noticed the metal ball was coming back to him, he nearly avoided it and looked at it come back to Daemona, then, other flapping sounds were heard, he looked bad in front of him. Ordinary birds headed to him and went close to hit him! Thanks to his quick reflexes, and keeping his mouth closed at all costs, Casey flyed downwards and avoided the birds but received a big whoosh coming from their speeds, he was disoriented from some times, then got himself together and looked everywhere...

The demon was gone….

But there was still something he acquired that could make the quest go on….

As he flied down to reunite with the gang, the metal ball was going back into Daemona's weapon, she turned the lever on.

" _What was that?"_ Daemona turned to Navarro to get an answer.

" _When you hit a target, the ball spreads black sticky goop on his whole body, and slow down his movements, bothered by the glue material. But when you miss and you open the lever, it creates a powerful magnetic field between the shot and the weapon, who are both metal, and brought the ball back into your weapon, I call it the GlueShoot."_ Navarro explained. _"It's like paintball, but arranged by myself…heheh."_

Casey went back into the ground, still in his woodpecker form.

" _Casey, are you all right? It was dangerous up there, you could have hurt yourself."_ Kira kneeled in front of him.

" _You were brave, boy!"_ Jericho thumbed up.

Daemona looked at the sky, with a sad look.

" _I don't understand...the knights were right in front of us, we were four, and we didn't even managed to catch one or talking with them...and now here's this flying thing, that we didn't even keep track of...we lost him...will they ever come back? At least no one is hurt..."_

Kira just put her hand on Daemona's shoulder, while Casey turned back to human form and spitted the purple hair on his hand, showing it to the gang.

" _Maybe we lost him, but I think we can know what this thing is by analyzing the tuft I have here, and get better prepared."_

Daemona took the purple hair and looked at it while Jericho was high-fiving Casey. Curious, she pointed the specter detector at it, the demon's gauge rose up.

" _Let's get back to my attic, I have a weird feeling about this."_ Daemona ordered.

* * *

Cutting to Daemona's attic, her, Kira, Jericho and Casey were here, she looked at them with a serious look.

" _I think it's time I owe you some explanations."_ Daemona started. _"In past August, I already saw these knights, they were looking for clothes, and there was a goofy voice accompanied by them. I think the lord they are referring about was this flying demon we saw…"_

A long silence resumed, Jericho broke it and shrugged.

" _That's all?"_

" _Yeah, what links all of this is…blurry…we don't even know their true motives and the identity of this demon."_ Kira expressed. _"I thought the solution to the knights case were going to lead to a revenge story, or treasure hunting, instead we get this...lord demon thing."_

" _It's not just that."_ Daemona revealed. She looked around, looking for the hair gel she kept and took the single hair who was on it. _"If we analyze these two hairs…."_

Daemona put, turn by turn, the hairs on a analysis machine connected to the big screen, on each hair, the same picture appears: the flying demon.

" _It's the same demon!"_

" _Wait wait….the hair gel who dropped on my shoulder and made me fall the other day. It was…."_ Jericho paused.

" _I'm not sure, but since it fell from the sky, I think he just dropped it, I'm surprised he didn't went to our house and looked for it again."_ the red girl explained, bringing hypothesis.

" _That means a demon flew in the sky during the day and NOBODY noticed it?"_ Jericho lifted up his tone, not judging this makes sense.

" _At this distance, I guess people took him for a bird."_ Casey retorted.

" _Well, that's more convenient, but we still don't know what he is and what his true motives are."_

" _HEEEEEY, HEEEEY, I KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!"_ a hoarse voice yelled from under the bed.

Daemona closed her eyes and sighed for a few seconds, hand on her forehead, she went under the bed and pulled out Wad, who was still imprisoned.

" _What do you want?"_ she addressed to him.

" _Dropped it, flying demon, goofy voice, I know him!"_ Wad said.

" _Really? Why didn't I thought of you sooner...what do you know about this demon? And please don't make this a joke!"_ Daemona warned, pointing severely at Wad.

" _Nononono, I swear I know him. His name is Jinxie, he is pretty well known from all paranormal entities, even me."_ Wad informed. _"He's not really evil like some creatures you see, he's a real sweetheart, hehe. Let say he just lives with a dangerous curse."_

" _A demon who is not evil?"_ Casey concluded. _"We just FOUGHT with his subjects and himself, of course he's evil!"_

" _No, just insecure. Ironic, for a bad luck demon, when we're around him, a tree could fall on your head, a mug could break, or even worse, you could lose electricity and missing your favorite TV show! He's causing problems and bad luck to everyone, even at his own coasts."_

Daemona remained silent, Wad started calling her.

" _Daemona? ...Earth is calling the moon?"_

" _A ...bad luck...demon?"_

Some scenes were coming back to Daemona...

* * *

 **-Flashback, in end-August-**

 _"As I was about to close my shop, I heard weird goofy voices in the dressing room, you know the following; then, while you were on your way, I took a cup of coffee with me and checked back in every cabin: no client, no thief, no ghost nobody! But I keep seeing clothes dragging on the floor, I tried to get them but I kept hearing voices and I don't dare to pick them up."_ the cashier explained.

 _"Anything else?"_ the disguised girl interrogated.

 _"Well, just some mobility problems when I first tried to get the clothes, I spilled coffee on it!"_

 _"Not you, the problem."_ Daemona clarified.

 _"I think the voices are still there, be careful!"_

 **-...-**

" _Don't force me to use the strong way!"_ Daemona objected.

She settled the vacuum to average power and pressed the on button, but no noise was getting out of it. She pressed the button a second time, still no result.

 _"Urg, why it's not working now? Of course!"_ she complained,

 **-Flashback end, back to present-**

* * *

Daemona gasped.

" _DUH, that's why my vacuumormal didn't work in time! He was there during that time, his bad luck curse surely moved one of the batteries out!"_

" _What?"_ everyone shrugged, but Daemona and Wad.

" _Tell me more, this is getting interesting."_ Daemona widely smiled.

" _Well…that's all I know about him."_ the wad of gum shrugged.

"… _.You had ONE JOB!"_ Daemona angrily said, pointing at the sprite.

" _Wait wait!"_ Wad placed in a defensive position despite the fact he was imprisoned _. "I mean I don't know what are his current motives, but I'm pretty sure he will come back, you just have to keep track of him."_

" _And how we will do to capture a demon who's causing whatever bad luck at the most unknown and inappropriate time?"_ Jericho said, out of ideas. _"We don't even know if he's going to come back."_

" _Luck is something we can interpret in different ways, is it really a curse? And the probabilities we have over the choices we will make are infinite... "_

" _Casey's right."_ Daemona approved. _"The definition of luck is really coming from each other's point of view, but what's important is that bad luck is happening to us when Jinxie is close. I think we will manage to fight against the bad luck curse if…"_

" _Oooooh I think I will change my name for the night…"_ Kira commented between her lips.

Daemona turned around and walked in circles, making convincing moves with her right fist.

"… _if we think positive, if we believe in even the smallest probability that we end up capturing him, then nothing dangerous will happen to us, we will WIN, we will bring LUCK to us and I think I have just the right idea to help us out."_ the red girl predicted. _"We will trigger him with the hair gel, to see if he's interested in it."_

" _And after that? We will hurt them?"_ Casey asked.

" _I have no intention of hurting them, I just want to get rid of the knights some way or another then make Jinxie spit out the truth, I want to know what his deal is!"_ Daemona explained.

" _I repeat, we don't know if he's even coming back!"_ Jericho insisted.

" _We have to at least try, who know, maybe probabilities and luck will smile to us!"_ Daemona insisted more.

" _How about I come with you? I want Jinxie to give me an autograph."_ Wad suggested.

"… _.As I saiiiiiiiiiid…"_ Daemona ignored, facing her friends, smiling but clenching her teeth. _"We will bring LUCK with us. Come with me, everyone."_

Wad looked in a spot, thinking, meanwhile, Daemona and her team walked towards the elevator, preparing themselves, Kira started talking to her leader.

" _Did you just-"_

" _Give him the time we will leave this room."_ Daemona whispered.

After everyone left the room, Wad started frowning and turned to the closed elevator.

" _HEY, was that an insult?"_

* * *

In an unknown green space atmosphere place with a floating house, Jinxie looked at the perfume, Lambequin and Andreas were behind him.

" _I thought it was not all humans who were fools, I just proved I was wrong!"_ Jinxie threw the perfume away. _"This is not what I was looking for."_

" _How? We obeyed you just as you said: we found an artifact shaped like a bottle who smells and we brought it to you, sir."_ Andreas said.

" _It was not this one, I already have something who's similar to it, who smells bad! What I was looking for was what I dropped the past month, it has like the same shape!"_ Jinxie stated. _"I couldn't go and get it back in front of everyone."_

" _With all due respect, lord Jinxie, it's the fourth time we travel to the human world, finding about what you're looking for. Aren't there any artifacts here? "_ Andreas said.

" _Unfortunately, no, except the one I have who smells bad, there are no other places than the human world who have these dear treasures."_ Jinxie the bad luck demon informed _. "We have no choice, we have to return there, I'm sure that these pesky kids have what I was looking for, they seem to know a lot!"_

" _Again, with all due respect, your highness, I think your curse will bring us problems, if it's not already bringing some to yourself."_ Lambequin said.

" _What beasts am I hearing? Me, cursing you? You two have been knights since centuries and dust, you are valiant, on the lookout of any danger, so you must be able to deal with bad luck events like dropping your weapons, aren't you? I insist to accompany you and make sure you don't mess up, there, if it can help you, we can find objects to bring you luck, even if I don't really believe in it…"_

"… _At your service, lord Jinxie."_ the two knights shouted at the same time.

" _Before we go, I have to find a new weapon!"_ Lambequin suggested.

Suddenly, as they were about to go, someone knocked on the door outside, Jinxie went and opened to door, only to find someone who looked like the reaper, but he was blue instead of black, without scythe.

" _Is this the dark matter mailman?"_ Jinxie questioned.

The voice was grave, smothered by the blue coat.

" _I've heard you were looking for something precious shaped like a bottle you dropped? ….I can indicate you where it is."_

Jinxie raised his eyebrows, with an interrogative look...


	8. Good luck to us, we have guts!

Daemona, Jericho, Kira and Casey were hidden behind trees and bushes close to a forest, with the VacuumOrmal Navarro repaired and the GlueShoot, on the open side leaving to civilization, the hair gel was standing in the air thanks to Jericho's powers. The team whispered to each other.

" _Thanks for the horseshoes, Casey."_ Daemona said, she had one turned upwards in her pocket, with the rest of the team.

" _Are you sure this will work?"_ Jericho asked.

" _I might believe it, I have hope and faith."_ Casey pretended, holding a four-leaf clover.

" _Me too, but Daemona…was it necessary to write the seven number everywhere on your disguise?"_ Kira Williams commented.

Indeed, a couple of black seven numbers were glued on Daemona's body.

" _We have to bring every luck symbol to our side as possible, I didn't want to look like a fool by endlessly yelling seven."_ Daemona reasoned.

" _No offense, but I think that you are already looking like a fool, at this forcing rate, I don't think it will bring you luck."_ Kira expressed, ignoring her friend's gaze.

" _And what about rabbit's foot?"_ Jericho asked.

A long silence resumed before Casey shapeshifted into a rabbit with the four-leaf clover on his back and holding the horseshoe upwards with his mouth.

" _This guy understands it: four times the charm."_ Daemona pointed at Casey.

" _Third time."_ Kira coughed.

Daemona pulled out the specter detector. The demon and ghost gauge were empty at the beginning, but at the time passed, they started growing up super quickly.

" _They're coming, put the hair gel and stay hidden."_ Daemona said, hiding herself completely behind a bush, Jericho and the others followed her lead.

Jinxie and his ghost friends arrived by flying and got on the ground.

" _Already? Why are they coming here to find an hair gel?"_ Casey questioned.

" _The important thing is that we followed what Navarro said: don't make yourself too open and get out of the city for a case like this."_

" _Why are we standing there to bait them with it?"_ Jericho looked at Casey and answered with that question.

" _Quiet, they're coming closer…"_ Kira said to the boys.

Jinxie saw the hair gel standing on the ground while the PIs remained hidden, he went closer to the hair gel to take a look at it.

" _See? This is what I was talking about, I dropped it, and you didn't even came back picking it?"_ Jinxie said.

" _Neither you, my lord, you were with us. You could have went for it."_ Andreas stated, starting to have a rough tone.

" _I'm not subtle enough, it's not the same thing. And change your tone, young knight."_

" _No offense, lord Jinxie, but maybe our search for artifacts would get better if you would not accompany us on every on our quest. "_ Lambequin said.

As the little argue resumed, the PIs all looked at each other.

" _Is it just me or this alliance is not sane?"_ Casey said, pointing at the two ghosts and Jinxie.

" _Our plan still work, they're distracted!"_ Daemona said. _"Prepare to attack…right…..NOW!"_

Jericho controlled the VacuumOrmal out of distance by turning it on to full power and rolled it towards Lambequin, who walked a few meters on the right and dodged it, but not because he heard it coming, he went closer to Jinxie.

"… _.What? NO, we had luck objects, it was supposed to work!"_ Kira said.

" _Yeah, only problem, Jinxie the BAD LUCK demon is here."_ Casey brought.

" _Not just that, look, they too have a luck symbol in hand."_ Daemona said, pointing at the wishbones who were getting visible in each knight's hand.

" _Ow, OK I have a headache, with all this mess of luck and bad luck thing."_ Jericho complained, hand on his forehead.

" _So, what do we do now?"_ Kira asked to everyone.

" _Uh, hello, quick-time chores here!"_ Jericho waved, then used his powers to try to bring the wishbones into his hand.

Meanwhile, with the two knights and Jinxie, Lambequin, who avoided the vacuum without noticing it, talked to his lord.

" _Sir, I'm beginning to think you are some kind of-"_

" _Wait, what was that?"_ Jinxie said, noticing the VacuumOrmal and pointed at it.

" _HEY, MY WISHBONE!"_ Andreas suddenly yelled.

The two wishbones were now in Jericho's hand.

" _Rats, these intruders again?"_ Andreas said, turning around and saw them.

" _Forget them, get the artifact!"_ Jinxie ordered.

As the knights were about to run or fly, Kira shoot a metal ball with the GlueShoot, the knights avoided it only to let it fall on Jinxie, who was now glued against the ground with black goop. Kira pressed the button of her weapon another time, but...

" _Rats, there was only one ammo left...Professor Navarrooooo!"_ Kira growled while rolling her eyes up.

" _Lord Jinxie, teleport away!"_ Lambequin ordered.

" _No, I'm not going until you get the artifact!"_ Jinxie insecurely said.

" _Are you looking for that?"_ Kira suddenly asked, the hair gel in hand, dropping the weapon away.

The two knights growled and flew towards Kira. But she only was serving as a distraction: Casey, who was shapeshifted into a bird without luck symbols and in the middle of the distance between the two knights and Kira, was reading the occasion above the two knights who were coming.

Once they were just underneath him, he changed into an anvil and dropped himself on Andreas, who fell on the ground with the anvil and was knocked out.

Lambequin did not stop his flight on the process, he went straight towards Kira.

" _Hey Daemona, we exchange?"_ Kira addressed with an acting look.

" _OK!"_

At the same time, Daemona and Kira threw the hair gel and the ether-disruptor to each other, but instead of receiving it, the two objects bumped together and fell on the ground between the two girls.

" _Jinxie..."_ she just sighed looking at him, she saw Lambequin with a sword and dodged to blow, running to get the ether-distruptor. _"Agh, but they want to kill us or what?"_

Meanwhile, Jericho was controlling back the VacuumOrmal far away, who went towards Andreas.

" _Hey, wait until I'm gone!"_ Casey shapeshifted back into a human and went close to Daemona, who got the hair gel.

As the vacuumormal was about to suck Andreas, two skeleton horses with dust and spiderwebs were charging left to Jericho, who nervously backed up and tripped on a bush not far away. Lying on the ground, the two horses passed right on him, but luckily, no hoof crushed him during the crossing.

Staying on the grass for some time, shivering, Jericho took a look at the VacuumOrmal, who was still on, luckily, it was close enough to the unconscious bulky knight to suck him.

" _I'm coming...gang...just...give me the time..to...reevaluate my life."_ Jericho panted between these words.

Meanwhile, Kira stood right under a tree and used the ether-distruptor on Lambequin, who struggled on the ground and tried to move.

" _I think it's now time to use the vaccuum."_ she proposed.

Kira closed her eyes, a large branch torned from the tree where she stood and went to crush her, but thanks to her telepathy, she avoided it, interrupting her distruptor process.

" _OK, these luck symbols don't seem to work, we can't work properly as long as we're close to Jinxie. We have to do something."_ Kira said, while avoiding a sword blow.

Casey, who was close to Daemona, saw two skeleton horses who were rushing in the fight point.

" _Casey, follow my lead, I think I have an idea..."_ Daemona guided.

Meanwhile, Kira tried to use the ether-distruptor on Lambequin again, but he didn't give her time, he tried to swing her with physical swords blows, which the girl avoided.

" _This time I am mad! Give me that treasure or you're coming with us!"_ Lambequin shouted between the blows.

" _How about you're coming with me?"_

The voice came from Daemona, who got the glueshoot and pulled on the lever. The magnetic force triggered the ghost to attach him to the weapon. Under the shock, Daemona dropped the weapon and showed the hair gel she put out of her outfit to Lambequin.

" _You want this treasure, huh? You fight so much for it? Then try to catch- YAAAH!"_

Daemona just saw the two skeletons horses charging to her and ran straight away deep in the forest.

" _I'm getting out of this bad luck!"_ Kira sprinted with the Ether-disruptor and followed Daemona.

Lambequin growled. He was magnetized on the glueshoot, but he was tall enough to reach out the lever and pull it off. He stood himself up and flew towards the forest.

* * *

Meanwhile, Jericho stood up, the Vacuumormal was under a tree not far away for him and close to Jinxie. Even glued, bad luck powers couldn't be erased. A branch fell on the Vacuumormal and pressed a button...

 _ **Blow...**_

" _No!"_

Andreas, sealed into the VacuumOrmal, was now shouted like a canon ball through the forest, in the same direction Daemona and Kira went...

" _No no no no no no no no!"_ Jericho endlessly said while standing up and rushing through the forest, putting the VacuumOrmal back to the suck function and controlling it from distance.

* * *

Meanwhile, Daemona continued to sprint, she was throwing grass right behind the skeleton horses, who were chasing her, hoping that they would stop for some time.

" _Phew, well, we're out of Jinxie at least, and I think these horse stopped. Now if we could just-"_

Daemona stopped running, Lambequin appeared from the right in front of her. He was quick enough to keep track of her.

" _Here's the jester! Don't force me to use the strong way..."_

Daemona backed out two steps, remaining defensive nevertheless.

" _...You're seriously going to make that story for a TREASURE? A treasure that doesn't have any values?"_ Daemona interrogated, frowning.

" _Liars, for so long me and my brother traveled through this strange place, lacking of any humans...fullfilled with all these demonic creatures...for once we get to work for a good cause, but, like always, you have to scrap everything for your selfish selves and not sharing with us what we want...this is why me and my brother so long fought for everything... our world haven't changed."_

" _WHAT good causes? We're fighting for an HAIR GEL!"_

" _An herrguel who have a strong value, it belongs to Lord Jinxie!"_

" _Please, just open your eyes, don't you see you're being manipulated by this jerk demon? "_

" _Insult lord Jinxie one more time, and you will be in the same place with us!"_ Lambequin threatened, raising his sword.

" _But...we've heard..your little..."_

Daemona backed a few more steps, clenching her teeth and her left fist.

" _All right...I have enough! Navarro told me that everyone could have a reason to be evil, that investigating their backstory is important. But unfortunately, there's no place for brozen and stubborn ghosts like you, who just deserve to be abducted by me and my team."_

" _Of course you don't understand...your friends are only kids and you're just a jester kid."_

" _A jester kid and kids you will have to pass through if you want to hurt anybody."_ Daemona opened her arms, ready to recieve a reaction.

Lambequin sighed and walked slowly towards Daemona, ready to attack.

" _Why a jester like you is making our life so complicated?"_ Lambequin stated, head down.

Daemona put one hand into her outfit, preparing to get something out.

" _All we want is the artifact..."_

Lambequin was about to charge, but a girl scream behind Daemona interrupted everything. Daemona turned behind her.

" _KIRA!"_ she ran, but Lambequin tackled her on the ground, not using this weapon. Daemona struggled to get out.

" _Stop moving! We won!"_

Andreas appeared in the place, holding Kira with an arm around her neck and the ether-disruptor with another hand.

" _Leave me alone you primitive ghoul!"_ Kira menaced, still struggling.

" _NO, KIRA!"_ Daemona shouted, she then saw Jericho coming, controlling the VacuumOrmal at distance, still under function. _"NO, JERICHO, NOT NOW!"_

"CLOSE IT, CLOSE THIS WITCHCRAFT NOW!" Andreas yelled, dropping the ether-disruptor, picking his spear on his back and pointed at the vacuum. _"IF YOU USE IT, I WILL BRING YOUR FRIEND WITH ME!"_

" _OK OK calm down…Jericho, do as he says."_ Daemona ordered.

Jericho stopped the VacuumOrmal from distance.

" _Good, now give me it."_ Andreas ordered.

" _What it?"_ Jericho questioned.

" _WHAT THE JESTER IS HIDING ON HER!"_ Andreas yelled, pointing at Daemona.

" _OW, stop yelling, we're not two kilometers away."_ Kira said, without holding back.

A growling Daemona with a contemptuous look, holding herself to burst out for Lambequin pressing the "jester" button, started looking at Lambequin, still holding her.

" _If your friend could just let me go, I would happily contribute."_ she said.

Lambequin stood up before Daemona and reunited with his friend, waiting for the leader to give them what they want. After a few seconds of search in her disguise, Daemona showed the hair gel and rolled it with force towards Lambequin and Andreas. The knight friend who just came out of the vacuum and regained consciousness, took the object and let Kira go, Kira was coughing and seated on the grass.

" _Good, we have the artifact, only one left and we can share our deal and to us wealth."_ Andreas said.

Daemona noticed that the two knights hold the hair gel together, with one hand. She smugly smiled and started talking.

" _I don't think so...CASEY, NOW!"_

The hair gel on the two knight's hand shapeshifted into a really heavy dumbbell, so heavy that it crushed the hands on the ground, blocking the two's knights moves for a while.

" _...You will pay for this!"_ Andreas shouted.

Before they could do something, Kira stood up, caught the ether-disruptor and used it on the ghosts, who screamed. Meanwhile the dumbbell changed back into Casey, who was now wearing his glasses. He rushed back with difficulty to Daemona, who showed him his glasses.

" _I think they belong to you."_ Daemona gently said, giving the glasses to Casey.

" _Jericho, I think it's time now!"_ Kira ordered, looking at him.

Jericho opened the vacuum from distance and at full power, he brought it close to the knights, still under the disruptor's pressure, they couldn't move and they were slowly abducted by the vacuum.

Under their screams and the vacuum's noise, they were finally sucked in. Once this was done, the user closed the vacuum from distance.

" _Finally, it's done!"_ he sighed from relief.

" _And what we will do with these horses?"_ Kira pointed at the two skeleton horses not far away, they were trying to eat grass.

" _They seem gentle despite their appearance...Let them try to have their meal...we have someone else to talk to..."_ Daemona insisted on that sentence.

* * *

Outside the forest, Jinxie was still glued on the ground, impatient, he was still waiting for the knights with the hair gel...

"What are they doing?" he complained.

"JINXIE!" an angry voice shouted.

The whole PI team with all their gadgets, came out of the forest entrance, avoiding a falling branch on the process. Casey got the Glueshoot on the way, who was still close to Jinxie.

" _How do you know my name?"_ Jinxie nervously said, he seemed scared.

" _Explain yourself!"_ Daemona ordered.

"… _.Ooooh, lo-look at the time, I have to watch TV."_ Jinxie just answered, stuttering.

" _Didn't you said you needed this…the HAIR GEL?"_ Daemona showed the real hair gel to Jinxie.

" _Oh yeah, hand it to me, I need it before I go."_ he said, still glued on the ground.

" _Not before you explain yourself."_ Jericho suggested, frowning.

" _And if you don't..."_ Kira embellished.

The brown-skinned girl pressed on the VacuumOrmal button at small power and slowly increased it.

" _AAAAH, GET IT AWAY, ALL RIGHT, I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING!"_ the girl stopped the gadget after Jinxie's screams, he then added in panic, shivering. _"It's me who collapsed Meldor the dark lord of chaos's grand palace just while passing by, please don't hurt me!"_

" _Yeah but no, we're talking about what you did with these knights!"_ Casey stated.

" _All right all right."_ the bad luck demon sighed. _"A big day will be coming in a few months, and I needed products to arrange my allure for the demon awards."_

" _That must be interesting."_ Jericho added between Jinxie's explanations.

Jinxie was so inside his bubble trying to explain, he didn't saw Daemona pressing on a particular button on the vacuum...

...the button who was going to free the knights!

* * *

 **-flashback, in a green and ghostly universe, we see Jinxie flying-**

 _Unfortunately, we don't find what I've searched for everywhere where I belong, it's such an vague and neverending place. Sure, for bad perfume, I can always roll myself into elemental trash, but it's dangerous. And the human world is dangerous too! For years I tried to get there alone...but every time I missed my chance. I already been there, but it was never alone..._

 _This year, I tried something different, I searched myself for ghosts who already saw the human world…at preference, mortals who were brave._

 **-We see Jinxie in front of two knights, the ones we see on the present day-**

 _I've convinced two knights to help me get these objects, that I called "artifacts" or "treasures" so they thought they had a value, and they helped me. They have no hesitation to be intimidating towards any person who wanted to…to…hurt me._

 _...But to add credibility, I didn't told them there were tons of hair gel, tons of neat-looking clothes or tons of perfume._

 **-We see Jinxie in the human world holding a bottle of hair gel and looking at it, judging his efficacity-**

 _I had to find one precise object on my own while they were guarding the place and showing them after...it was hard for my heart, but at least I had protection just in case._

 _...and you kids didn't make my work easy, instead of finding other beauty products, I had to focus on this one SINGLE object of each category I found. I didn't tell these naive humans these objects have no value, that we can find these objects everywhere in the human world. My story had to be keepen straight, and so the demon awards project, who dured for weeks and weeks..._

 **-end of flashback, back to present day-**

* * *

" _So, in other words, you manipulated two fighting-looking ghosts who asked for nothing and were all just all rip in peace for a hundred years just because you're an insecure coward?"_ Kira Williams concluded by her words.

The four kids looked at Jinxie, they seemed disappointed by this behavior.

" _And the demon award, you've said it, it's only in months!"_ Jericho reinterpreted.

" _Getting ahead on its time, never heard of it? I just wanted to look my best, I have many opponents, and I didn't want to be attacked. I wanted to be protected, so no one could hurt my precious face."_ Jinxie awkwardly placed. _"I swear I never intended to hurt you, it was just all for my own protection."_

" _Wow, I swear I was almost done the first time I met these knights, and all this for what? For a sweetheart, as Wad says."_ Daemona shaked her head, disappointed.

Lambequin and Andreas, who were free and standing next to Daemona, took a few slow steps towards Jinxie, it was hard to tell with their helmets, but they were looking angry.

" _Lor-...PEST Jinxie!"_

Jinxie screamed, he didn't see the two knights free...he was manipulated.

" _This gesture you just made is a selfish action. When a master tells us what to do, or insult us, he's honest about it, he doesn't double-cross because he's unsure of himself; even when he orders us to retire, he does so with assurance. You promised us wealth, and all we get is lies."_ Lambequin lectured.

" _I guess we are fool ourselves, still accepting to work for someone and we're not anymore in a mortal life since hundreds and hundreds of years, all of this for hair gel and modern clothes we foolishly took for treasures. You don't even deserve it!"_ Andreas blamed.

Lambequin threw the bottle on the ground and stomped it with force, deforming it.

" _Noooo!"_ Jinxie whined, while his two ancient subjects turned to the kids. _"Don't do this to me, I have high risks to be demoted!"_

The two knights ignored Jinxie's whining and talked to the kids.

" _Villagers, we thank you for opening our eyes, and allowing us to return to eternal sleep. Sorry for all this brute actions, we lived in an ancient time, and...perhaps…everything have changed, you could have fought us super seriously, like a true warrior, and you didn't, you abducted us, but you freed us, even when we were about to hurt you."_ Andreas thanked and apologized.

" _Weeeeell, it's nothing, you traumatized a teenager, you took perfume for treasure when it was certainly invented in your time."_ Kira sarcastically replied.

" _Hey, sometimes constructed objects can disappear, or just change shape everytime."_ Lambequin argued with a bit of sarcasm, a new situation for him. _"Well…Andreas my friend, time to return to our world."_

"… _with hope that no jester interferes with us ever agai…"_ Andreas noticed Daemona, who quickly pointed her ether-disruptor to them. _"We were talking about Pest Jinxie."_ he just said, laughing.

Daemona smiled, putting back her ether-disruptor behind her.

" _Hey, I know that, I just wanted to see your reaction!"_ Daemona expressed on the outside. _"I didn't, you are lucky!"_ she thought in her head.

" _I heard that..."_ Kira said by telepathy.

The two knights laughed, then went away, disappearing. Daemona suddendly started yawning.

" _Urgh, all this planning, adventure and team formation these past weeks made me tired. How about we go in Kira's home?"_ Daemona proposed, trying to keep his hand out of her mouth, while Jinxie sighed.

" _Well...at least I can find what I search everywhere now...I guess it's time for me to get back-"_

Jinxie gets interrupted by a "hey" from Professor Navarro who came in. Jinxie, who was still glued on the ground, could only look at him with his eyes, surprised.

" _Hey kids, what are you doing? Did you follow my advice to go in an isolated place to be sure to meet your demon?"_

" _Navarro? You don't wait us in your car?"_ Kira asked.

" _My tape just finished, and it took you long, I thought you had problems, I see that you did just fine."_ Navarro looked at Jinxie for one second, silencious, then went back to the kids. _"…What is that? A baby demon?"_

" _No, just Jinxie, we were about to make a deal with him so he wouldn't make misfit to any human again."_ Kira answered.

" _Hey, what deal? I haven't been consulted! TYRANNY!"_ Jinxie said.

" _Aaaw, look at him he's doing a tantrum."_ Casey said, while Jericho hold a laugh.

" _Bring him to my garage, and don't make stories."_ Navarro said, alluding his last words to Jinxie, while the demon gulped.


	9. Everything has a end, but it can expand

Jinxie was indeed not really an evil demon, he surrendered and accepted to follow the PIs all the way to Navarro's repairs, he was quiet in the car, sitting on Casey, scared to just talk.

" _...I don't feel safe in this car with that demon!"_ Casey started.

" _Don't worry...I drive veeeeerrrry slowly!"_ Navarro reassured, with an horseshoe in his pocket. _"So, Daemona...remember what we said? ...Daemona?"_

Daemona, fell asleep, her face was cushioned by her hand against the window.

" _Aaaaah, how cute."_ Kira whispered.

" _Don't wake her up, she deserved her sleep, she's been working hard these last weeks...but our plan is still in works."_ Navarro whispered to the three kids. Jinxie remained silent.

A honk noise behind Navarro's car made everyone, Jinxie included, jumped. Only Daemona was still asleep.

" _Jinxie!"_ Jericho quietly growled.

" _OK come on, stop blaming me for every bad action, this fool drives like a snail, or course these impatient mortals get mad!"_ the demon whispered to Navarro, who ignored him.

* * *

Later, in Navarro's repairs, everyone let the ginger disguised girl sleep and discussed quietly between themselves at the distance, with Jinxie, the humans had their arms crossed, just looking at him.

" _So, Jinxie, I heard luck was all around you?"_ Jericho acted.

" _We've consulted each other and I think you know what this is about."_ Casey said, showing a box of cards, instead of the usual symbols, they were replaced by monsters. _"This is Daemona's terror 52 cards deck, we saw her playing while we were watching a movie with her, each individual. We propose you a game."_

" _Oooh, talk about friendly, I love games!"_ Jinxie replied, happy.

" _Ah-ah-ah, there is conditions."_ Navarro shook his finger. _"If you win, you do what you want about your whereabouts with humans, you're free to live your life like you intend to, but if you lose, you will help these kids whenever they need it without discussion, and if you have rebellious tendencies...what was that with that Meldor again?"_

"… _Uuuuh…against all four of you?"_ Jinxie asked.

" _Yes!"_ Kira nodded.

" _But this is unfair! I will never get the things I need for the demons awards."_

" _Look at this bad luck demon, he could make us lose with his curse and he's prematurely retreating, talk about a coward."_ Jericho said.

" _I thought luck and probability were your thing."_ Casey remarked.

" _Bad luck and bad probabilities."_ Jinxie corrected.

" _How about we get you to sleep next to Daemona?"_ the awake girl of the gang added with sarcasm. _"We will found a pacifier...and a little blanket..."_

" _Hmmmrrrrr, all right all right, I will play fair and square."_ Jinxie decided.

 _"Look, no matter the result, we will find you what you need for your awards things, we help people first and foremost, even creatures."_ Kira patted Jinxie.

 _"Yeah yeah..."_

" _Get a chair, everyone."_ Navarro ordered.

* * *

The next morning, Daemona was still with her costume in Navarro's car in the garage, she opened her eyes, slowly, and stretched with a yawn. Half-closed eyes, she looked everywhere.

" _Uuuh, did I fell asleep in Navarro's car? But…..JINXIE, WHAT DID THEY DO WITH JINXIE?"_ she woke up, panicked, and went out of the car, Navarro was here, just on the side of the car, smiling.

" _I thought you would never woke up."_ Navarro sniggered.

" _What happened, where's everyone, where's Jinxie?"_ the girl asked, completely lost.

" _Your first real case have been cleared, we took your terror card game and had a game of poker."_

"… _What?"_

" _You don't remember? You approved the deal, having a poker game with Jinxie and if he lost, he would help you, unfortunately, you fell asleep and…"_

" _I've missed my first card game with ALL MY FRIENDS and I wasn't even there? I completely BYPASSED IT? CURSE YOU AND YOUR BAD LUCK, JINXIE!"_ Daemona aggressively pointed at the ceiling, clenching her teeth, while Navarro while sincerely laughing.

" _Relax, I had a camera in the garage, they recorded it for you, it was so funny to see Jinxie complains about his loss."_

" _His loss?"_ Daemona calmed herself down. _"Wait, that means that…"_

" _Exactly, he will help you whenever you and your friends need it."_

"… _Wow…you were right…it's not all ghosts or paranormal entities who are pure evil. …Man…paranormal life can be a lot more different than I expected….I must say that with what I've experienced with the knights, I'm relieved to have cleared the case safe..."_

" _You did great, Daemona, you and your three friends. Sincerely, all I just did was waiting for all of you in a car and drove you at long-distances, I don't think I really need to guide you."_ Navarro declared.

" _Wait, n-no Professor, you made us gadgets, you lifted us with your car, it's thanks to you I have this high-tech attic and fullfilled my dream...I still need you."_

" _I'm not getting away, Daemona."_ the professor reassured. _"I will still help you if you really don't find any other solutions to your problems with your own gadgets...for right now, I see that you might need your own transport for faraway missions. You four kids are gentle, so maybe..I will…"_

Before Navarro could talk, Daemona was already in Navarro's car….on the conductor side looking for the keys, the adult started laughing.

" _Hahahaha, no Daemona, not my car, I was going to say we would construct your own car in high-style for your team, I already thought a name…maybe…the ghoul-mobile?"_

Daemona Prune literally had stars in her eyes.

" _YES, YES!"_ she just happily said.

" _Hahaha, all right, for now, I will get you home."_

* * *

Every kid of the PI gang were in Daemona's attic, they were looking a video about the terror game of last night. Daemona had her casual dress.

" _Wow, you really look like you all had fun here."_ Daemona remarked.

" _Especially Navarro, man he was our last hope!"_ Casey said.

" _You didn't have luck problems? All of you? I was not there…"_ the red-haired girl asked.

" _Well…we had luck symbols, hoped for the best…and Jinxie's bad luck came back towards himself."_ Kira explained.

"… _I'm really jealous, first I discover you all have powers but me, second of all, everyone played with my own cards but me."_ Daemona said, with a sad look.

" _Hey, it's you who formed this team in the first place, and gave us the opportunity to live a better life."_ Casey kindly complimented.

" _Yeah, investigating, helping people and chasing evil ghosts? Rock-on!"_ Jericho expressed.

" _It's a great opportunity to help people, I couldn't have dreamed off better…instead of…maybe…being…DJ."_ Kira said. _"But I like this team too!"_

" _Hm…thank you, you really are great friends, even if we've met each other in not even a month."_ Daemona stated. _"I couldn't have dreamed off better too. Maybe next time, I can build you a disguise in my style?"_ she smiled.

Casey, Jericho and Kira remained silent for a few seconds.

" _Huuuh, no need to, I can act from a distance."_ Jericho found an excuse.

" _My own mind says no, maybe another time."_ Kira politely said.

" _I…am…a…shapeshifter?"_ Casey awkwardly answered.

Daemona laughed at all of their responses.

" _I don't force you, don't worry, it's your deal."_ she politely reassured.

A goofy voice interrupted the funny discussion about disguises.

" _Thaaaaank you Waaaad, it's thanks to you we found out about the bad luck demon, you're such smart and handsoooommme!"_

Wad was free from the little prison he was in, he was seated next to Daemona and made moves with his pink arms. Daemona finally paid attention to him and talked.

"… _And I was going to forgot about Wad, I've set you free because your informations have been useful, we've been lucky this time but we will seriously consider consulting grandma's old books and everything I have in this attic, you know… to be prepared for next time and not always relying on…a gum who makes a mess every time he passes by...in the meantime, welcome to the team."_

" _It's a pleasure to be a part of the PIs ag- for the first time, yoopie-doo-da."_ Wad danced, while the others stopped looking at him.

Kira poked Daemona's shoulder and whispered in her ear.

" _You are so going to regret this."_

 _"Already did..."_ Daemona replied.

" _Hey, about we test our other new teammate?"_ Casey proposed.

" _JINXIIIIE, HELP!"_ Jericho screamed.

A smoke came in the room and Jinxie appeared.

" _WHAT IS IT, WHAT IS IT?"_ he panicked.

The video the kids were watching went off, the link disconnected.

" _Oh great!"_ Kira went to see what the problem was.

" _Wow, he answered fast!"_ Jericho laughed, followed by everyone but Kira.

" _Oh you bunch of stressful humans!"_ Jinxie looked at them, and then saw Wad. _"I have to work with this stupid blob too? I am really unlucky!"_

" _Hey, Jinxie-sissy, long time no see, want to sign my wad?"_ the cheesy gum asked, mimicking poorly Daemona's rhymes.

Daemona, Jericho, Kira and Casey laughed together, amused by Jinxie's annoyed look and Wad who didn't really make the things go better.

" _All right, I fixed it!"_ Kira came back to seat.

Jinxie screamed while seeing the video.

" _Please, close this! Bad memories!"_

" _Oh cheer up!"_ Daemona said. _"...that make me think I haven't play my card game with all of you. Jinxie, you want to-"_

" _GET ME OUT OF HERE!"_ Jinxie screamed while teleporting away under the PIs and Wad's laugh.

* * *

 _Well, that's how everything went during these past two months._

* * *

 **-Cut to Daemona, laughing with her friends at cafeteria-**

 _I made friends…I discovered that ghosts exists and it's super cool and freaky. Some amazing things happened and then Wad happened…_

* * *

 **-Cut to Navarro's repairs, where Navarro showed his ghoul-mobile plans to Daemona casually dressed, she nodded and talked for some time. As she went out, Navarro looked his place and Daemona, and started getting a happy look, but the eyebrows expressed sadness-**

 _Everything went so fast, but there are a lot of cases to investigate, where does all these demons, ghosts and sprites keep coming from? Where do my friends got these powers? Why grandma have gadgets like the VacuumOrmal? Why my life started changing only in San Francisco, is this a worldwide problem? Do all of my adventures are going to get as exciting as this one?_

* * *

 **-Cut to Daemona's attic, she was alone, on her chair in front of her desk, smiling and disguised-**

 _Who would have thought that I would find cool stuff only in my first week at my new home?_

The watch on Daemona's arm beeped, she opened it, it was Kira, she was in Navarro's repairs. Jericho, Casey and Navarro were working behind.

" _Daemona, I think you might want to see our new transportation!"_

" _The ghoul-mobile is done?"_

" _Soon, I'm sure you will like it!"_

" _Stay here, I'm coming!"_

As Daemona was about to get up, the green phone rang. Remaining seated, she picked it up and turned around on her chair.

" _Phantom Investigators, trouble with the spirits? We wanna hear it!"_

* * *

 **THE END...?**


	10. Afterending

" _She is just like her..."_

An adult walked in a closed-light place towards a lamp on a desk with several drawers. As soon as the person got close to the light, it was revealed to be Professor Navarro, he had a sad look in the eyes, but smiled.

" _I finally saw her..."_

The sad adult got into one of his drawers, and took a picture with a frame decorating it.

It was a picture of two persons happilly smiling, one, with a small mustache, short hair, squared face and glasses, wore a suit. The other, a woman, with long waterfall braid hair and some makeup, hold a bouquet of flowers. And judging by the sail of her big white dress, it seemed like she was going to get married. It was hard to tell the exact color of their whole body, hair and clothes since the photo was completely grey.

Navarro looked at the photo for a long time, and touched the woman's picture face. He talked alone, but it seemed directly meant for someone.

" _She is beautiful, she have your face. I hope you will be happy of her."_

* * *

" _Let's get back to my attic, I have a weird feeling about this."_ Daemona ordered.

A familiar scene.

Daemona was with her three friends, outside, they just want out of Navarro's red car, who was also with them.

" _We will find who this demon is."_ the leader affirmed.

While the PIs entered in the car, Navarro looked at the sky.

" _Please call me...he came back..."_ Navarro thought to himself before entering the car.

* * *

Navarro was alone in the garage, on the phone with someone.

" _OK...do your job, I'll take care of the rest. He will not mess with anyone now!"_

* * *

In a green universe, the same where we saw Jinxie's house. A blue hooded-person, looking like the reaper, flew in a place who looked like an attic. Someone else was addressing him a talk, a calm, feminine voice.

" _Did everything go as planned?"_

The unknown guy lifted his blue hood, it was a completely green person, wearing glasses and having some traces of a shaved mustache. He was pretty thin and seemed transparent, he started talking.

" _Yes, he didn't recognize me…"_

" _Good…this guy made enough mess."_

" _And our dear Prunella will be safe for now."_

" _Good..."_

* * *

" _Good…."_

Jinxie was sitting in front of someone we only saw the body, he hung up and started looking at him. The bad luck demon had a comptentuous look, the look of someone who now understands everything.

"… _Wa-was it you?"_

" _Not here"_ the familiar voice said.

The point of view went higher, it was Navarro who was talking to Jinxie, he had a kinda serious look, they were in Navarro's garage, nobody else was here…except Daemona, who was sleeping in Navarro's old car.

" _Outside, I don't want her to wake up."_

Navarro and Jinxie went outside, they checked if nobody passed, then started talking to each other, like average persons.

" _You three planned all this mess, all this time?"_ Jinxie asked. _"Typical yourself and your friends, always hiding…"_

" _I don't see what you're talking about!"_ Navarro said, keeping his serious.

" _This deal's off! You won't get away with this."_ Jinxie said, still keeping his insecurity.

" _You. Lost. The. Poker. Game."_ Navarro put well the emphasis on each on his words.

" _You dare declare the truth right in my face and you deny it, you manipulative mortal, I wonder who is the demon here!"_

"… _Poor Jinxie...complaining everytime when you have a quiet life. You haven't changed...I think it's time-."_

A strong wind started pulling over interrupting everything, Navarro's clothes started vibrating under the current, his shirt moved up as quick movements and a sound of something dropped on the ground was heard, as he was seen from behind.

Then, from Navarro's point of view, he only saw Jinxie, everything was red around him, he was not seeing clear, he was starting to growl and breath heavily, like something was choking him.

Jinxie started backing up. A demonic voice was heard.

" _I didn't directly want to show you this..."_

" _...What did you become?"_ Jinxie backed up.

" _Say it!"_

Jinxie remained silent, he was actually really scared, he stuttered, shivered, it was only an human standing in front of him…

" _What are you?"_ Jinxie just answered.

" _Say it, say you're helping or else you will probably regret what is coming!"_

" _S-Stop it...all right...dear…you-you scare me!"_

" _Good…"_

Navarro, saw from behind, leaned against the sidewalk for some time and went back up. Jinxie was not daring to speak while Navarro spoke to him, in his usual voice.

" _I know about you, but you don't know me, you don't know anything, this conversation doesn't exist! Say nothing when you don't know anything and help. Don't tell anything to the children, because you don't know me!"_ the professor pointed at the demon, tone raised up. _"Do you actually know how much phone bill I paid these last three years?!"_

" _...N-no!"_ Jinxie just answered.

" _That's right, you know nothing! What you only know is that you lost our poker game fair and square!"_

" _All right all right!"_ Jinxie panicked, still shivering.

" _You can go now..."_

Jinxie backed away for a few additional steps.

" _You have changed, Felix Navarro…"_

He didn't answer, the demon added something.

"… _Mentally."_

The scared bad luck demon then disappeared. Navarro, face remained unchanged, went back into his repairs.

" _I will tell them myself, when the time will come..."_


End file.
